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One free scan finds every outdated or missing driver and matches the right update for your exact hardware.Free scan · exact hardware matchNeanderthals used wooden and stone tools as complementary parts of a toolkit, not as competing technologies. Stone tools supplied sharp edges for cutting, scraping and shaping; wooden implements—including spears, lances and sticks—could serve directly as weapons or other tools. Archaeological evidence points to those roles, but the materials preserve differently, and many specific uses must be inferred rather than treated as proven.
How wooden and stone tools differed
| Comparison | Wooden tools | Stone tools |
|---|---|---|
| Material and preservation | Wood decays readily, so surviving examples are rare compared with stone and bone. That scarcity is a preservation bias, not a reliable measure of how often people used wood. A 2024 study of the Schöningen wooden assemblage discusses this imbalance. | Stone generally survives far better in archaeological deposits, leaving a more visible record of tool use. |
| How they were made | At Poggetti Vecchi, researchers describe a process involving wood selection, stone-tool work and fire. They report evidence that fire was used to work the wood. The study interprets the implements as potentially multipurpose sticks, not necessarily weapons. | Stone edges could cut and scrape materials, including wood. At Schöningen, some artifacts also show suggestive evidence of hafting—that is, possible attachment to wooden handles or shafts. Microwear and residue analysis informs these interpretations. |
| Likely tasks | Finds include pointed weapons such as spears and lances, as well as double-pointed sticks. A particular implement’s function is not established by shape alone. | At Schöningen, use-wear and residue evidence indicates woodworking, hide working and meat cutting. |
| Evidence used to interpret function | Researchers consider manufacturing marks, shape, archaeological context and associated remains. Preservation makes the surviving record incomplete. | Researchers can examine wear and residues on working edges, alongside artifact form and context. |
What the archaeological sites show
Poggetti Vecchi: shaping wood with stone and fire
At Poggetti Vecchi, worked wooden implements were recovered alongside stone tools and fossil bones. The authors describe evidence for fire-assisted woodworking and a manufacturing sequence that included selecting wood and working it with stone tools. They interpret the objects as possibly multipurpose sticks; their form does not establish that they were weapons.
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Schöningen: wooden weapons and stone working tools
The Schöningen Spear Horizon includes wooden spears, a lance and double-pointed sticks. Stone artifacts from the site provide separate evidence of woodworking, hide processing and meat cutting. Together, the finds show how stone tools could help work materials while wooden implements served as tools in their own right. A study of a Schöningen double-pointed throwing stick adds evidence about one kind of wooden implement.
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Schöningen’s chronology has also changed. Hutson and colleagues’ 2025 study uses amino-acid geochronology on fossils from the find-bearing deposits and a regional chronostratigraphic reassessment to propose an age of about 200,000 years for the Spear Horizon. Earlier estimates were around 400,000 years and later about 300,000 years. The revised estimate aligns the assemblage with the timeframe of Neanderthals, but it is a proposed revision, not a date that should be treated as beyond scholarly debate.
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Lehringen: a spear and an elephant carcass
A 2026 study reports a 2.38 m yew thrusting spear from the Eemian site of Lehringen, traditionally associated with a straight-tusked elephant. Its new faunal analysis identifies cut marks indicating that the elephant was butchered and probably eviscerated while fresh. The spear’s association with the carcass, its position and the animal’s condition make a hunt persuasive, but the study does not report direct evidence of spear impact. Limited documentation from the original excavation also constrains how confidently the event can be reconstructed. The article was corrected on 27 July 2026; details affected by that correction should be read in its corrected version.
How strong is the evidence for what each tool did?
Stone tools can retain microscopic wear and residues that help identify what their edges worked on. Wooden tools are more often interpreted through manufacturing traces, shape, context and associated remains. Faunal cut marks can establish that an animal was butchered, but they do not by themselves prove which weapon killed it. In both cases, function is strongest when several kinds of evidence converge; an artifact’s appearance alone is not enough.
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These finds are also not all equally attributable to Neanderthals. Wooden tools are known from Lower and Middle Paleolithic sites including Clacton-on-Sea, Schöningen and Lehringen, but site age and hominin attribution vary. It is inaccurate to label every Paleolithic wooden tool Neanderthal.
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The evidence supports different, connected roles rather than a simple ranking. Stone provided durable, sharp edges for cutting, scraping and shaping; wood could be shaped into implements such as spears, lances and sticks. The cited studies do not provide a like-for-like performance test showing that one material was categorically more effective or important. Because wood preserves poorly, the number of surviving wooden artifacts cannot settle that question.
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