One of the perfectly-preserved spears. Photo: Nicholas J. Conard, University of Tubingen
Posted on 09/18/2012 3:12:27 PM PDT by SunkenCiv
Archaeologists from the University of Tübingen in Germany have found eight extremely well-preserved spears -- an astonishing 300,000 years old, making them the oldest known weapons anywhere.
The spears and other artefacts as well as animal remains found at the site demonstrate that their users were highly skilled craftsmen and hunters, well adapted to their environment -- with a capacity for abstract thought and complex planning comparable to our own. It is likely that they were members of the species Homo heidelbergensis, although no human remains have yet been found at the site... excavation in an open-cast brown coal mine in Schöningen...
The bones of large mammals -- elephants, rhinoceroses, horses and lions -- as well as the remains of amphibians, reptiles, shells and even beetles have been preserved in the brown coal.
Pines, firs, and black alder trees are preserved complete with pine cones, as have the leaves, pollen and seeds of surrounding flora.
Underwater archaeology without the water
Until the mining started 30 years ago, these finds were below the water table. The archaeologists say they are now carrying out "underwater archaeology without the water." Work continues almost all year round, and every day there is something new to document and recover.
Some of the most important finds of the past three years have been remains of a water buffalo in the context of human habitation, an almost completely preserved aurochs (one of the oldest in central Europe), and several concentrations of stone artefacts, bones and wood.
They allow the scientists to examine an entire landscape instead of just one site.
(Excerpt) Read more at pasthorizonspr.com ...
One of the perfectly-preserved spears. Photo: Nicholas J. Conard, University of Tubingen
A homo erectus offshoot
Shouldn’t we sound an alarm now that there are no elephants, rhinocerii, and other exoctic beasts left in Germany outside of zoos? My, oh my! It sounds like an ecological disaster worthy of an Algore movie! sarc/off
“A capacity for abstract thought and complex planning” They know this from looking at a stick. My little dog brings in sticks all the time. I knew he was a genius. We’re going on the Letterman show.
“My dog is a genius.”
“Well your genius dog is pooping on the stage.”
“I said he’s a genius Dave, I never said he could talk. That’s just his way of critiquing your show.”
;’)
I won’t touch that line with a ten foot, well, never mind.
Lots of 700,000 year old hand axes found in Africa. They’re weapons.
This find has been around a lot of years,
I first read about them just after some lefty book on how war was a modern construct had been published, the article described them as fighting spears or even javelins, I think.
Love this stuff. The thought that ‘man’ back then was nothing but an upright idiot could not have been further from the truth.
Today on the other hand, yes, ‘man’ is an upright walking idiot, when not on the sofa eating pringles.
Perhaps we have digressed more than initially thoughT :)
"Make it so, Number one."
:’) I was sure there had been a topic about it too, but I couldn’t turn it up with a web search.
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thanks!
This article from the Boston Globe 1997 may be the one I saw.
Sophisticated hunting spears apparently more than 380,000 years old have been found preserved in the peat of a German coal pit, a discovery that could revolutionize scientists’ view of the intelligence and social organization of prehistoric humans.
The three spruce spears — each about 7 feet long and carefully crafted, with a center of gravity that resembles the balance of the best Olympic javelins — are three times older than any complete spear ever found. Close to the spears, in a lignite mine 65 miles east of Hanover, archeologist Hartmut Thieme and colleagues found flint tools, a possible hearth and the bones of more than 10 horses that had been butchered.
http://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/boston/access/11139305.html?FMT=ABS&FMTS=ABS:FT&type=current&date=Feb+27%2C+1997&author=Peter+J.+Howe%2C+Globe+Staff&pub=Boston+Globe&desc=Spear+discovery+points+to+earlier+origin+of+hunt&pqatl=google
Thanks again.
Just another benefit of "clean" coal.
;’)
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