Throwing stick from Schöningen

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The Throwing Stick von Schöningen is a wooden throwing stick from the Paleolithic , which was discovered in 2016 in Schöningen in Lower Saxony . Archaeologists found him during excavations at an excavation site in the Schöningen opencast mine in the layer of the Schöningen spears . The throwing stick is around 300,000 years old, making it the world's oldest specimen.

The throwing stick from Schöningen in the find location , 2016

Reference

The site of the throwing stick (Schöningen 13 II Obere Berme) is on the edge of the Schöningen open-cast lignite mine at a depth of about 10 meters below the original surface. It is located on the edge of the open pit in an excavation area called Speerhorizont Süd . At the site there is a layer of sediments from a former lake from the end of the Holstein warm period . The remains of the wild horse hunting camp, located about 80 meters to the south , in which the Schöninger spears were found, continue in it.

The exceptionally good preservation of the wooden object and other organic materials in Schöningen over 300,000 years is due to the fluctuating water levels of the former lake and its silting processes. Due to the rapid and airtight covering of the find layer by Mudden, there were favorable conservation conditions for organic material such as wood. For the good treasure preserving the from worried Elm originating calcareous waters of the lake and the permanent position below the water table , which has been artificially lowered only by the Schöninger surface mining from the 1979th

description

Original sediments from the site with a replica throwing stick

The throwing stick is made of spruce wood and has a length of 64.5 cm and a diameter of 2.9 cm. The cross-section is asymmetrical. The ends of the roughly 260 g heavy and slightly curved wooden device are pointed, but, in contrast to the spears from Schöningen, are somewhat blunt. Both the slight curvature of the artifact and the blunt ends were intentionally created during the manufacturing process and are not a result of storage in the sediment. The surface has been worked with stone tools. The bark was removed, the surface smoothed and a total of 21 smaller branches and twigs removed. Compared to the spears, however, the traces of processing are less accurate. The throwing stick shows signs of usage in the middle part. These are splinters and irregular depressions. In contrast to the processing marks, which can be traced back to the manufacture of the throwing stick and which appear somewhat fuzzy due to the moisture in the wood at the time, these splinters are clearly sharper, especially at their edges. This indicates that they were created at a time when the wood was already exposed to a certain drying process. Their origin is therefore to be set much later than the manufacturing brands. According to their shape, they result from the impact of the stick at high speed on a firm resistance and are therefore to be regarded as impact scars. The distribution of the splinters on the surface is random and does not reveal any major concentrations. The low weight of the artifact, the random distribution of the impact scars and the lack of signs of wear at the ends speak against an interpretation as a club or digging stick.

Comparative finds and functionality

The throwing stick resembles a stick found in 1994 in connection with the Schöningen spears, sharpened at both ends and slightly curved, 78 cm long. This does not show any signs of use, so that its function is not clear. At the end of the 1990s, the head of the excavation, Hartmut Thieme, interpreted it as a throwing stick for hunting birds and made ethnographic comparisons with Australian objects used in this way.

A throwing stick recreated by the scientists for test purposes

The Schöninger throwing stick shows similarities to throwing sticks found in Tasmania , some of which fly more than a hundred meters. Until its discovery in 2016, the oldest known specimens came from South Australia , with an age of around 10,000 years. Such devices were used by indigenous peoples in Africa, Australia and America. A little older is the oldest known boomerang from the Obłazowa -Höhle in the Polish Carpathian Mountains , with an age of about 23,000 years BP . Other European finds are documented from the Mesolithic .

The way a throwing stick works is that it flies in a straight line towards the target. During the flight, the stick rotates axially around its center of gravity and has a stable flight position due to the rotation. Experimental tests with replica specimens by the excavation manager Jordi Serangeli showed a high level of accuracy at short distances. In further attempts to throw the strongly curved “Shar” of the Dassanetch , top speeds of around 30 meters per second and throwing distances of 60 to 110 m were achieved. The throwing sticks used for this consisted of Commiphora wood and were around 60 cm long and weighed 350 g.

Research history

The throwing stick lay in layers of sediment to the left of the dark groove

The throwing stick was discovered in 2016 during excavations in Schöningen and taken from a block salvage. The excavations are being carried out as part of the Schöningen research project under the direction of archaeologist Nicholas J. Conard from the Senckenberg Center for Human Evolution and Paleoenvironment at the University of Tübingen . The research project is based on a cooperation that has existed since 2008 between the Lower Saxony State Office for Monument Preservation and the University of Tübingen. After its discovery, the throwing stick was examined by archaeologists from the Senckenberg Center and the University of Liège for four years. Only after it was completed was the discovery publicly announced in April 2020. After the examinations, the find was taken to the restoration workshop of the Lower Saxony State Office for Monument Preservation in Hanover , where it is stored in distilled water under exclusion of light. Preservation will probably last for several years. The Lower Saxony state archaeologist Henning Haßmann advocated in 2020 a quick museum presentation of the findings in a research museum Schöningen near the reference, which because of the restoration initially only by means of pictures, graphics or 3D - animation is possible.

Evaluation and interpretation

According to the scientists involved in the research, the throwing stick is one of the oldest surviving hunting tools in the world. In connection with the discovery of the Schöningen spears, including a lance, it is important evidence of the active hunting of the early man Homo heidelbergensis 300,000 years ago. The three different types of wooden tools show that he had a wide arsenal of hunting weapons. The scientists suspect an earlier use of the throwing stick for hunting small prey such as waterfowl, as the bones of swans and ducks were also found at the site . The throwing stick, in combination with other hunting weapons, was also suitable for driving wild horses.

The paleoarchaeologist Sabine Gaudzinski-Windheuser from the Roman-Germanic Central Museum in Mainz, who was not involved in the investigations, expressed doubts about the function of the wooden artifact as a throwing stick . She expected significant impact marks on the ends of the stick and not in the middle section.

literature

Web links

Commons : Throwing stick von Schöningen  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d Nicholas J. Conard, Jordi Serangeli, Gerlinde Bigga, Veerle Rots: A 300,000-year-old throwing stick from Schöningen, northern Germany, documents the evolution of human hunting. In: Nature Ecology & Evolution. April 20, 2020, doi: 10.1038 / s41559-020-1139-0
  2. ↑ Hartmut Thieme: Old Palaeolithic wooden tools from Schöningen, district of Helmstedt - Significant finds on the cultural development of early people. Germania 77, 1999, pp. 451-487
  3. ^ Hartmut Thieme: The Lower Palaeolithic art of hunting - the case of Schöningen 13 II-4, Lower Saxony, Germany. In: Chris Gamble and Martin Porr (eds.): The hominid individual in context. Archaeological investigations of Lower and Middle Palaeolithic landscapes, locals and artefacts. London, New York, 2005, pp. 115-132
  4. ↑ Hartmut Thieme, Rudolf Musil, Werner H. Schoch, Hermann Rieder, Elke Behrens, Christa Fuchs, Monika Lehmann, Solveig Schiegel and Utz Böhner : A finding of world significance: A wild horse hunting camp 400,000 years ago. In: Hartmut Thieme (Ed.): The Schöninger Speere. Humans and hunting 400,000 years ago. Stuttgart, 2007, pp. 151-152
  5. ↑ Hubert Filser: Ice Age people used complex weapons for hunting in Die Zeit from April 20, 2020
  6. ↑ Flying wood against mammoths in Süddeutsche Zeitung from April 20, 2020
  7. ^ Neil T. Roach and Brian G. Richmond: Clavicle length, throwing performance and the reconstruction of the Homo erectus shoulder. Journal of Human Evolution 80, 2015, pp. 107-113
  8. ↑ Markus Brich: Research Museum Schöningen wants to document the throwing wood find in Helmstedter Nachrichten of April 21, 2020
  9. ↑ Throwing Stick Hints at Ancient Ancestors' Hunting Techniques in The New York Times, April 22, 2020

Coordinates: 52 ° 7 ′ 57.6 ″  N , 10 ° 59 ′ 19.4 ″  E