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Neanderthals used wooden tools most clearly for hunting. Preserved spears and double-pointed sticks from Schöningen are interpreted as weapons for thrusting or throwing at prey, while a wooden digging stick from Aranbaltza III shows that digging was another task. Other Schöningen implements may have processed plants, hides or materials around a camp, but those functions remain interpretations rather than observations. Because wood normally decays, the surviving artifacts represent only a small, unusual sample of Neanderthal technology.
The short answer: hunting is strongest, but it was not the only use
The clearest case comes from Schöningen in Germany. A lakeshore assemblage contains shaped wooden spears and shorter double-pointed sticks alongside abundant animal remains and other evidence of hunting. Their points, dimensions, splitting patterns and archaeological setting fit weapons used against prey. The spears may have served as thrusting weapons at close range and possibly as throwing weapons; the double-pointed forms are interpreted as throwing sticks suitable for medium-sized, fast terrestrial or flying animals. These are carefully supported functional interpretations, not directly witnessed actions.
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Wooden tools also supported tasks away from the moment of attack. A Middle Paleolithic digging stick from Aranbaltza III in Spain is direct evidence for a wooden implement made for digging. At Schöningen, some split-wood objects could have worked plant materials or hides, and rounded-ended pieces may have smoothed hides. Their shapes and the site’s plant- and hide-processing evidence make those possibilities plausible, but the artifacts do not identify one exclusive task.
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Outbyte PC Repair FREEClear out junk files and repair common Windows errorsFree Scan →Outbyte Driver Updater FREEScan for outdated or missing drivers - takes under a minuteDriver Scan →The main qualification is preservation. In ordinary soils, wood rots, is eaten by microorganisms or is destroyed by later activity. Waterlogged lakeshores and similar settings preserve it only under unusual conditions. A stone-heavy archaeological record therefore does not mean Neanderthals made few wooden tools; it means most wooden tools are missing.
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What the Schöningen assemblage reveals
A large collection of worked wood
A systematic study of material excavated through 2008 identified 187 worked wooden artifacts from Schöningen’s Spear Horizon, including a minimum of 20 hunting weapons. The analysis classified spears, double-pointed sticks and several kinds of split wood rather than treating every shaped fragment as a spear. The full study is available from the PNAS article on Schöningen’s wooden artifacts.
Researchers examined facets, split surfaces, points, polish, repairs and reworking. Those features establish that the pieces were deliberately selected and modified, and they constrain what each object could have done. A long, pointed, balanced piece is more compatible with a weapon than with a scraper, for example, but morphology alone rarely proves the exact motion or target.
Spears: thrusting and possibly throwing
Schöningen’s spears are interpreted as hunting weapons aimed at prey ranging from small to large animals. Their construction and point geometry support thrusting; balance and dimensions also allow the possibility of throwing. The associated fauna and lakeshore activity context strengthen the hunting interpretation because the artifacts occur where animals were being pursued and processed.
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1Scan for outdated or missing drivers - takes under a minute2Repair Windows errors before they cause bigger problems3Fix the driver behind crashes, sound loss and screen glitchesThat evidence does not show that every spear was thrown, that every one struck an animal, or that a particular specimen killed a particular carcass. Archaeologists infer behavior by combining form, manufacture, wear and context. The result is a high-confidence hunting function for the group, with lower confidence about the precise use of each individual weapon.
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Double-pointed sticks: a different hunting weapon
Shorter double-pointed sticks are not simply miniature spears. Their two sharpened ends and different proportions led the Schöningen investigators to interpret them as throwing sticks. Such weapons could have been useful against medium-sized or smaller fast-moving terrestrial prey and potentially birds. The proposed targets come from comparison with the object’s shape and the animals represented at the site; no surviving trace records a specific strike.
Split woods and possible processing jobs
Other artifacts were made by splitting wood and then shaping, rounding or pointing the resulting pieces. Some single-pointed split woods may have been used in plant working or hide processing. Rounded-ended forms may have acted as hide smoothers. Those suggestions fit independent indications that people processed plants and hides at Schöningen, but the same shapes could have served other domestic purposes. The study notes that ethnographic comparisons are sparse, so these functions should be described as “may have” or “could have,” not as settled identifications.
How old are the Schöningen spears, and were they made by Neanderthals?
For years, Schöningen was commonly presented as approximately 300,000 years old, within Marine Isotope Stage 9. A 2025 study using amino-acid geochronology on fossils from the find-bearing deposits, combined with regional chronostratigraphic reassessment, places the Spear Horizon at approximately 200,000 years ago. The revised estimate is reported in the Science Advances chronology study.
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The younger age matters because it falls within the period when Neanderthals occupied Europe and is compatible with a Middle Paleolithic setting. The study’s authors therefore argue that the revised chronology supports a Neanderthal-era interpretation and discussion of cooperative hunting. Chronology is not identity, however. Dating a deposit does not preserve the name or species of the person who shaped an individual spear. Other hominins could theoretically have been present, and the evidence does not contain a label identifying a maker. The most accurate wording is that the revised age places the tools in a timeframe associated with European Neanderthals, rather than that it proves every Schöningen weapon was made by one.
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Lehringen: a long spear and an elephant, with an important caveat
What was found
Lehringen in Germany is dated to approximately 125,000 years ago. A 2.38-metre wooden thrusting spear was found in association with remains of a straight-tusked elephant. A 2026 systematic analysis reports cut marks on elephant ribs and vertebrae, interpreted as defleshing and probable evisceration while the carcass was relatively fresh. The authors of the Scientific Reports faunal study regard Lehringen as the most convincing case for a successful Neanderthal elephant hunt using a thrusting spear.
Why the association is debated
The original 1948 excavation took place under difficult conditions and did not preserve reliable photographs or drawings of the spear’s exact find position. Because the spatial record is weak, scholars have questioned whether the spear and elephant were directly connected in a hunting event or merely happened to occur together. Wear near the spear tip has also prompted proposals that the implement could have had another role, such as digging or probing snow.
The cut marks make elephant processing at the site strong evidence, but they do not repair the missing excavation documentation. Lehringen therefore illustrates two separate claims that must not be merged: an elephant carcass was butchered, and a long wooden spear was recovered nearby. A hunting interpretation is plausible and important, yet the certainty is lower than it would be with a documented spear embedded in an animal or an undisturbed spatial relationship.
Aranbaltza III: direct evidence for digging
Aranbaltza III in Spain adds a task that hunting sites alone cannot establish. A 2018 PLOS ONE report identifies a Middle Paleolithic wooden digging stick. Its survival is significant because a complete or recognizable wooden implement is exceptionally rare in Paleolithic contexts.
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A digging stick could have opened soil, extracted edible roots or tubers, reached burrowing animals, or helped with other ground work. The artifact supports digging as a documented use category, but one preserved stick cannot show how often Neanderthals dug, which plants they targeted or whether similar tools were routinely discarded elsewhere. Stone tools can also carry wear that implies woodworking, digging or plant processing; such indirect traces demonstrate activity without preserving the wooden implement itself and often cannot identify an exact function.
How archaeologists infer what a wooden tool did
1. Technology and morphology
First, specialists establish that an object was worked rather than naturally broken. They record splitting, shaving, facets, pointed or rounded ends, symmetry, polish and repairs. Manufacturing choices reveal intended strength, flexibility and balance. A weapon-like form narrows the options, but several tasks may remain possible.
2. Archaeological context
Objects found with butchered fauna, hunting debris or processing areas gain a stronger hunting or carcass-working interpretation than isolated pieces. Schöningen’s preserved lakeshore deposits provide unusually good spatial and environmental information. Lehringen’s poor original documentation demonstrates why context quality must be reported alongside an attractive artifact.
3. Dating and stratigraphy
Dating establishes when a tool entered a deposit, not who held it. At Schöningen, earlier age estimates relied on stratigraphic correlation and dating of underlying deposits; the newer estimate applies amino-acid geochronology to fossils from the tool-bearing deposits and reassesses regional correlations. A changed date can alter which hominin populations are plausible makers, so age claims should always include the method and uncertainty.
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4. Use-wear and experimental comparison
Polish, edge rounding, fractures and microscopic traces can indicate contact with wood, hide, plant tissue, soil or bone. Experiments with replica tools help test whether a proposed activity creates similar traces. Such comparisons support a hypothesis but rarely produce a unique fingerprint: digging, probing and other forceful contacts can leave overlapping damage.
5. Preservation and sampling bias
Waterlogged and fine-grained deposits preserve wood far better than dry soils. The surviving record is therefore biased toward unusual places and moments. A site with many stone tools but no wood cannot be treated as evidence that wood was absent, while an exceptional cache such as Schöningen cannot automatically represent everyday tool ratios across Neanderthal territory.
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| Site | Date and dating issue | Wooden artifact | Proposed task | Strength and limitation |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Schöningen, Germany | Approximately 200,000 years under the 2025 amino-acid-geochronology estimate; older publications commonly used approximately 300,000 years. | 187 worked wooden artifacts, including at least 20 hunting weapons; spears, double-pointed sticks and split woods. | Hunting is strongest; plant working, hide processing and other domestic uses are possible for some split woods. | Large, well-preserved lakeshore assemblage with faunal context; revised age and maker attribution must be stated explicitly. |
| Lehringen, Germany | Approximately 125,000 years; date reported for the site context. | 2.38 m wooden thrusting spear. | Potential elephant-hunting weapon; alternative digging or probing functions have been proposed. | Cut-marked elephant bones support fresh carcass processing, but the 1948 excavation poorly documented the spear’s original position. |
| Aranbaltza III, Spain | Middle Paleolithic; the cited study identifies the cultural period rather than a single tool-use frequency. | One preserved wooden digging stick. | Digging. | Direct example of a non-hunting wooden tool; one artifact cannot establish how common digging sticks were. |
What the evidence does—and does not—support
Well supported
- Neanderthal-era populations used shaped wood as hunting equipment, with Schöningen providing the strongest assemblage-level evidence.
- Wooden spears could be thrusting weapons and may also have been thrown.
- Double-pointed sticks were likely specialized throwing weapons rather than ordinary spear fragments.
- At least one Middle Paleolithic wooden tool was made for digging, based on the Aranbaltza III find.
- Most wooden technology is missing from the archaeological record because wood usually decays.
Still interpretive
- The exact action performed by each Schöningen spear or double-pointed stick.
- Whether particular split woods processed plants, hides or another material.
- Whether the Lehringen spear directly participated in killing the nearby elephant.
- How frequently Neanderthals used wooden tools in daily life compared with stone tools.
How to read a claim about a “Neanderthal wooden tool”
- Check the date. Ask whether the age is measured directly, inferred from strata or revised by a newer method.
- Separate maker from timeframe. A deposit compatible with Neanderthals does not identify the person who made one object.
- Identify the observation. Is the evidence a point, a polish pattern, a cut mark, a spatial association or a complete artifact?
- Identify the interpretation. Does the source say “used for,” or does it say “may have been used for”? Preserve that level of confidence.
- Assess the excavation record. Strong spatial documentation can connect a tool to an activity; missing plans or photographs weaken that connection.
- Account for missing wood. An absence of preserved wooden tools is not an absence of wooden technology.
Taken together, the sites show a flexible toolkit. Hunting is the best-supported use, digging is directly documented by a separate artifact, and processing functions are plausible but less secure. The most responsible conclusion is not that Neanderthals had one standard wooden tool, but that they shaped perishable wood for several jobs whose archaeological visibility depends heavily on where the tools were discarded and preserved.
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