An Unprecedented Trove of Ancient Wooden Tools Uncovered at a Rock Shelter in Spain Shows Neanderthals Were Skilled Woodworkers
Wooden objects usually decompose quickly, but periodic flooding and minerals in the water helped preserve those at a site called Abric Romaní. Archaeologists documented nearly 600 wooden objects—or their imprints—and 13 were clearly shaped by human hands
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When you think of Neanderthal technology, you probably envision stone tools. But a trove of ancient wooden artifacts uncovered in Spain is giving an unprecedented look at how our extinct relatives used other resources.
Researchers examined hundreds of wooden objects—including imprints left by decayed ones—at a site called Abric Romaní, about 30 miles west of Barcelona. The array of relics further show that Neanderthals were skilled woodworkers who used the material to create trays, plates, weapons and other items. The findings, described in a study published in the journal Science Advances on October 7, add to a growing body of evidence that demonstrates Neanderthals weren’t as simple as previously believed.
“Not so long ago, Neanderthals were considered our less complex cousins,” says study co-author M. Gema Chacón, an archaeologist at the Catalan Institute of Human Paleoecology and Social Evolution (IPHES-CERCA) in Spain, to Andrew Curry at Science. “Now it looks like their behaviors were very close to those of Homo sapiens.”
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Most archaeological evidence we have from the Paleolithic period, which spans around 12,000 to 2.6 million years ago, is made from stone for a rather simple reason—organic materials decompose, and stone doesn’t. “Stone survives extremely well, so naturally, stone tools dominate the archaeological record,” explains study co-author Josep Vallverdú, also an archaeologist at IPHES-CERCA, to Gayoung Lee at Gizmodo. “Wood usually disappears. But wood is an incredibly versatile material.”
Other evidence of ancient woodworking has been found at sites in Italy and Germany, but these were mostly digging tools for foraging and weapons for hunting found on muddy lake shores. Abric Romaní in Spain, on the other hand, has a diversity of wooden objects because it was a living space. The roughly 3,200-square-foot shelter had fireplaces, trash pits, sleeping areas and more.
Did you know? Neanderthal hunters
In 1948, amateur archaeologists found a 125,000-year-old straight-tusked elephant skeleton with a nearly eight-foot-long wooden stick between its ribs at a German site called Lehringen. But because of poor documentation of the discovery, some experts argued the wooden object was a digging stick. In March, researchers reported that cut marks on the elephant’s bones suggest that the tool was, indeed, a spear—and that it further shows Neanderthals hunted big game.
Since the 1980s, researchers have been uncovering charred wooden remains and impressions left behind by some that decomposed at the Spanish site. Periodic flooding probably helped prevent these objects from quickly rotting, per Science. Minerals in the water hardened into travertine, a type of limestone, trapping the wooden artifacts within and preserving them, or at least their outlines.
In the new study, Vallverdú, Chacón and their colleagues documented 597 wooden artifacts from 16 different archaeological layers, which were dated to between 40,000 and 62,000 years old. The researchers poured resin into some of the imprints to create casts of the original objects. They also scanned some artifacts to make 3D models.
Many objects were things like branches, roots and firewood accumulations, but 13 items were clearly shaped by human hands. They include trays made from bark, wooden poles that may have been used for a small shelter, pointed sticks that appear to be weapons and a knife-shaped object that may have been a club. Together, the items offer a glimpse of what life looked like tens of thousands of years ago.
“When you put all these objects together, you suddenly see wood appearing in many different parts of Neanderthal life,” says study co-author Palmira Saladié, an archaeologist at IPHES-CERCA, to Gizmodo.
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Other experts agree. Chris Stringer, an anthropologist at the Natural History Museum in London who wasn’t involved in the study, tells James Woodford at New Scientist that the work reveals Neanderthals had a wide technological repertoire of woodworking skills.
“This is, of course, evidence from only one site, in one area, and one time span,” he says. “So it’s just the tip of the iceberg in terms of a whole and mostly hidden technology that ran in parallel with the much better-known stone tools of the Paleolithic.”
The wooden items are “remarkable,” Naoki Morimoto, an anthropologist at Kyoto University in Japan who also wasn’t involved in the study, tells New Scientist. “Preserved organic materials are truly rare, and they reveal a ‘hidden’ aspect of Neanderthals that we have been missing.”
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