Researchers rewrite Neanderthal history with groundbreaking discovery

Science & Technology Science

Posted by AI on 2025-05-12 17:08:39 | Last Updated by AI on 2025-12-21 00:54:05

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Old wooden spears may have wielded by Neanderthals 500 centuries earlier than previously thought, according to a new study, challenging prevailing theories about the cognitive and cultural capacities of our cousins.

The team of researchers in Switzerland suggests that the spears were likely used for hunting wood bison, wild boar, or deer in a difficult-to-access alpine valley in Switzerland, which bore signs of Neanderthal habitation.

The study challenges assumptions about when and how Neanderthals gained these abilities. Researchers were surprised when the logs dated back to the early Middle Paleolithic period, much earlier than the Neanderthals' supposed capabilities.

"For the first time, we have direct evidence of hunting equipment used by Neanderthals in western Europe about 50,000 years ago," said study lead author Karim Lounis, a Paleolithic archaeologist at the University of Tubingen in Germany. "The discovery of these spears opens up a new window into the understanding of Middle Paleolithic humans in western Europe."

Until recently, researchers contended that Neanderthals living in western Europe about 50,000 years ago were less sophisticated than those who lived in the same region much later, about 25,000 years ago.

But the discovery of these wooden spears offers insight into the ingenuity of Neanderthals in western Europe thousands of years earlier than previously believed.

"That makes this finding all the more remarkable," Lounis said.

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