The world's oldest complete wooden hunting weapons are 200,000 years old, not 300,000 as previously believed. This is shown by a new dating study that Zoran Perić from the Department of Geology participated in, which has now been published in Science Advances and highlighted in international media. The discovery indicates that the spears originate from Neanderthals, deepening our understanding of their complex social behaviours.
In the mid-1990s, nine wooden spears were discovered in a coal mine in Schöningen, Germany, along with the remains of 50 horses. Previous dating was based on the overlying and underlying sediment layers and was uncertain. Now, an international group of researchers using advanced methods has determined that the spears are approximately 200,000 years old. Several dating methods were used, including optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) and amino acid racemization. These methods have refined the site's chronological framework and can be used to study the development of complex behaviours in early humans.
Despite the new dating, the Schöningen spears are still the world's oldest complete wooden spears.
Read the full story here: Revised age for Schöningen hunting spears indicates intensification of Neanderthal cooperative behavior around 200,000 years ago | Science Advances