The Schöningen Spears

Dr. Hartmut Thieme of the Lower Saxony State Heritage Office (Niedersächsisches Landesamt für Denkmalpflege) is the discoverer of the world-famous Schöningen Spears. Since 1983, the archaeologist and his team have been conducting rescue excavations in the area in front of the Schöningen open-cast mine. The crowning achievement of his efforts was the discovery of several completely preserved wooden artifacts from the Paleolithic Age between 1994 and 1998 – a find that is second to none and made its discoverer world-famous among experts. The Schöningen Spears are the oldest preserved hunting weapons known to man, dating back 300,000 years. Thieme's find is presented to interested visitors and experts from all over the world in the paläon Forschungsmuseum.

The Schöninger Spears in the portal Cultural Heritage of Lower Saxony

Sensational finds

The site of a hunting camp yielded more than 10,000 bones of wild horses, as well as seven wooden spears, other spear fragments, a lance and two throwing sticks. A real world sensation. Never before have such old and completely preserved wooden hunting weapons been found. Thanks to unusually favourable geological and sedimentological conditions, the finds, which are around 300,000 years old, have been very well-preserved. News of these sensational finds spread around the world.

Homo heidelbergensis

In Schöningen, Lower Saxony, you can see in a unique way how and where our predecessor, Homo heidelbergensis, lived and hunted. So far, there are no other parallels or similar finds to the Schöningen Spears in the entire Paleolithic worldwide. For archaeologists, the more than two-metre-long, carefully crafted wooden spears are an immense treasure trove of knowledge. The entire assemblage of finds helps to explain the settlememnt history of northern Europe, and many previous assumptions about the life of Homo heidelbergensis can now finally be substantiated. They show that he was much closer to modern humans than previously assumed.

paläon Forschungsmuseum (Schöningen)

The infrastructure required for research and exhibition purposed as well as excavation work is currently being set up in the museum. This includes, among other things, various high-resolution digital microscopes and 3D scanners.

Staatliches Naturhistorisches Museum (Braunschweig)

The SNHM in Braunschweig has a range of research infrastructure for the documentation, analysis and visualisation of research finds and museum objects. This includes high-resolution digital microscopes and 2D/3D scanners, a desktop scanning electron microscope and equipment for elemental analysis.