Schöningen Spears

The Schöningen Spears are eight wooden hunting weapons at an excavation site near Schöningen in Germany. Each weapon measures more than two meters in length and was preserved in water-saturated sediments near a lignite mine.

Archaeologists from Germany discovered the weapons between 1994 and 1998 and dated them to 300,000 years old. This makes them the oldest completely preserved wooden hunting tools in the world.

The name comes from the nearby town of Schöningen, where visitors today can view the weapons at the research museum. The exhibition shows how early humans worked the wood and what hunting techniques they used.

The Forschungsmuseum Schöningen is located a few kilometers from the original site and displays the originals in climate-controlled cases. Visitors also gain insight into the scientific methods used to study the finds.

Researchers found more than 10,000 wild horse bones at the site, indicating intense hunting activities. The concentration of these remains makes the location one of the most important prehistoric hunting camps in Europe.