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The Schöningen spears, found in a German coal mine in the 1990s, are among the oldest known hunting weapons: wooden spears shaped and balanced for throwing. Their exact age, once put at about 400,000 years, is still debated.

Schöningen spears

ArchaeologyEngineeringEvolutionHistory

The story behind the card

A team led by the archaeologist Hartmut Thieme uncovered ten wooden weapons between 1994 and 1999 in an open-cast lignite (brown coal) mine at Schöningen in Lower Saxony, where waterlogged lakeside mud kept the wood from rotting. Most were carved from spruce trunks, one from pine, and in some the thickest point lies in the front third of the shaft, as on a modern javelin. When athletes threw replicas, they reached targets 15 to 20 metres away. The spears lay among the bones of an extinct wild horse, many with butchery marks. Their age has changed with each dating method: first 380,000 to 400,000 years, then about 300,000 to 337,000; a 2025 study argued for about 200,000 years, which would make Neanderthals their likely makers.

Türkçe oku
1990'larda Almanya'da bir kömür madeninde bulunan Schöningen mızrakları, bilinen en eski av silahları arasındadır: fırlatılmak için biçimlendirilip dengelenmiş ahşap mızraklar. Bir zamanlar 400 bin yıllık sanılan mızrakların gerçek yaşı hâlâ tartışılıyor.

Arkeolog Hartmut Thieme'nin yönettiği ekip, 1994-1999 yılları arasında Aşağı Saksonya'daki Schöningen'de, açık ocak bir linyit madeninde on ahşap silah buldu. Göl kıyısındaki suya doymuş çamur, ahşabın çürümesini önlemişti. Mızrakların çoğu ladin gövdesinden, biri de çamdan yontulmuştu; bazılarında gövdenin en kalın yeri, günümüzün cirit mızraklarında olduğu gibi ön üçte birliktedir. Sporcular kopyalarını fırlattığında 15-20 metre ötedeki hedeflere ulaştılar. Mızraklar, soyu tükenmiş bir yaban atı türünün kemikleri arasında bulundu; kemiklerin çoğunda kasaplık izleri var. Yaşları her yeni tarihleme yöntemiyle değişti: önce 380-400 bin, sonra 300-337 bin yıl dendi. 2025'teki bir çalışma ise yaklaşık 200 bin yıl önerdi; bu doğruysa mızrakları büyük olasılıkla Neandertaller yaptı.

Sources and further reading

Background reading: Schöningen spears
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