Schöningen Wooden Weapons

PI: Thomas Terberger, Holger Militz

Project collaborators:
Dirk Leder (Lower Saxony State Office for Cultural Heritage)
Annemieke Milks (University of Reading)
Jens Lehmann (Lower Saxony State Office for Cultural Heritage)
Michael Sietz (Lower Saxony State Office for Cultural Heritage)
Tim Koddenberg (University of Göttingen)

Period: Middle Pleistocene (300 ka BP)

The discovery of the oldest, completely preserved wooden weapons at the lignite opencast mine of Schöningen, Germany, in 1994, revolutionized ideas about the technical-cognitive abilities of early humans. Since the recovery of hundreds of wooden fragments from the so-called spear horizon (Schöningen 13 II-4) the focus lay on the conservation of these wooden remains. In the meantime ten spears and a throwing stick have been published and discussed in the context of human behaviour.

The aim of this project is a systematic analysis of the 778 wooden finds from the spear horizon. To this purpose, all wooden artefacts are recorded and described in detail to reach at a complete inventory of all processed wooden objects. This includes extensive documentation of working traces, use-wear, and taphonomic traces by the application of cutting-edge imaging technologies (3D-scans, µCT-scans, 3D-digital microscopy, and stereomicroscopy).

An important goal is the reconstruction of the operational sequence of woodworking during the Middle Pleistocene. Did humans only bring hunting weapons to the site that were then discarded and lost here, or did they also repair, manufacture, and re-use wooden tools on-site? Was the site occupied only during a relatively short time span or over many generations? What can the analyses of these earliest complete wooden tools tell us about early human woodworking skills, cognitive capacities and planning depth? Were they aware of different raw material properties and were they able to handle them appropriately? What can the wooden weapons from Schöningen tell us about past hominins?

Institutions
Lower Saxony State Office for Cultural Heritage
University of Göttingen

Financing
390,000 €
German Research foundation (DFG), Project ID: 447423357

Dates of Project
05/2021 – 04/2024