LONDON, ENGLAND—Neanderthals may have been capable of hunting animals from a distance, based upon a new study of the Schöningen spears conducted by a team of researchers led by Annemieke Milks of University College London. Science Magazine reports that previous experiments involving Neanderthal hunting technologies have often relied on first-time spear throwers, and so it had been thought that the weight of the six-foot-long, 300,000-year-old wooden weapons discovered in a coal mine in northwestern Germany would have limited Neanderthals to stabbing prey at close range. Milks, however, asked skilled javelin throwers to attempt to hit a target with replicas of the two-pound Paleolithic weapons, and found they were able to throw them more than 60 feet with enough force to kill prey. Accuracy was more difficult for the athletes to achieve: They hit the target about 17 percent of the time at a distance of 65 feet, and about 25 percent of the time at distances of 33 feet and 50 feet. Milks and her team conclude that Neanderthals, like modern humans, could have employed a variety of hunting strategies. For more, go to “Neanderthal Tool Time.”
