Unique 50,000-Year-Old Neanderthal Bone Spear Point Recovered in Spain

Excavations at Neanderthal sites in Europe have produced many eye-opening finds that have forced scientists to re-examine previously held beliefs about the capabilities of this long-extinct human cousin. This has happened yet again, as a result of a stunning discovery made by archaeologists digging at the Abric Romaní rock shelter, a Middle Paleolithic Neanderthal site located near Barcelona, Spain.

In amongst an impressive collection of stone, wooden, and bone tools, and the remains of animals the Neanderthals hunted for food, an archaeological team from the Catalan Institute of Human Paleoecology and Social Evolution (IPHES) recovered a sharp spear point made from the bone of a horse. This is a revolutionary discovery, because it is the first such spear point ever found. It reveals that Neanderthals did make and use this kind of hunting weapon, just like modern humans.

The bone spear point was found during the most recent excavation season at Abric Romaní, a camping site occupied by Neanderthals from 110,000 to 39,000 years ago, right up to the point where the species went extinct. The spear point has been dated to about 50,000 years ago, and it is just one of tens of thousands of Neanderthal artifacts that have been recovered during excavations at Abric Romaní  over the last three decades.

Medullary surface from the 3D reconstruction. (Mateo-Loba, P et al./Nature)

A Neanderthal Bone Artifact Unlike Any Other

The shape of the bone weapon suggested it had been used as a hunting weapon. But it took a close examination of its external features to confirm that this was the case.

“Microscopic linear impact marks, an impact fracture at the tip, and potential internal stress fractures indicate its use as a spear,” the IPHES archaeologists wrote in an article about their discovery just published in Scientific Reports.

Further study showed that the bone point had been shaped to be glued to a wooden shaft, as would be expected if it was used to make a hand-held spear.

The archaeologists don’t believe the bone spear point is a one-of-a-kind object. However, tools made from bone have a tendency to decay over time, which is why bone tools and weapons dating back to Neanderthal times are difficult to find.

Nevertheless, ancient bone tools and weapons have been found on occasion, at Neanderthal sites and elsewhere.

In fact, bone tools linked to archaic hominin species have been recovered at a few sites, with examples found in South Africa, Tanzania, and Ethiopia dating back to two million, 1.8 million, and 1.4 million years ago respectively. The oldest bone tools recovered from archaic hominin excavation sites in Europe were 500,000 years old, and were found in Boxgrove, England.

A variety of animal bone tools and weapons made my modern humans ( Homo sapiens) have been found in many locations. Neanderthal bone tools have been recovered as well, including bones chipped and carved to serve as hide scrapers, hammers, wedges, digging tools, and so on. Until now, however, there had been no evidence to indicate Neanderthals made hunting weapons from bones.

“The evidence found so far shows that Neanderthal populations used spears with lithic [stone] points,” said study co-author Paula Mateo-Lomba, in an interview with Haaretz.

“The case presented here shows the use of another material used for the same task. The Neanderthals from Abric Romaní had an abundance of lithic raw materials available in the environment as well as fractured bones to access the marrow, so the use of a bone tool shows their flexibility in choosing from the resources available to them.”

It is true that Neanderthal populations living in the region of modern-day Barcelona had access to a lot of animal bones. The remains of wild horses, deer, and goats have been recovered in abundance at Abric Romaní, as it seems these were the animals the Neanderthals most commonly hunted for food. When these bones were broken open to get at the nutritious marrow, it would have left behind shards of bone with very sharp edges, which could have been further shaped into spear points.

This is still a surprising find, because as Mateo-Lomba mentioned Neanderthals regularly made spear points from stone, which they could also find in many locations.

“Based on the shape of the tool, it was one of the possibilities that it had been configured as a spear point. However, it was indeed a surprise to confirm this initial hypothesis with the use-wear traces on the surface and internal fractures. In the European archaeological record, reports of (at least morphologically) Neanderthal bone projectiles are very scarce, so this finding is quite significant.”

Another Example of the Human-Neanderthal Connection?

With respect to modern humans, the oldest bone spear points linked to our species were found in Morocco and date back to about 107,000 years ago. Modern humans had certainly migrated to southern and western Europe within 30 or 40,000 years of this, which raises an interesting question: could the newly discovered spear point that has been credited to Neanderthals actually have been made by humans?

No human remains have been unearthed at Abric Romaní. However, if Neanderthals and modern humans were mixing, the bone spear point could have been picked up in some kind of exchange. Or perhaps it was salvaged from a human encampment.

Mateo-Lomba considers it unlikely the artifact was made by humans, “based on the technological characteristics of the documented materials.” In other words, the bone spear point shares some identifying traits with other Neanderthal tools, meaning it was almost assuredly made and used by them.

If humans and Neanderthals were living side-by-side for a few thousand years in Europe, it is possible they could have learned from each other. So even if the bone spear point was made and used by Neanderthals, it’s possible they got the idea from observing humans.

“This is a complex issue,” Mateo-Lombard acknowledged, “as the Iberian Peninsula occupies a unique geographic position where Neanderthals are believed to have persisted until very late dates.”

If the archaeologists eventually unearth more Neanderthal bone spear points at Abric Romaní dating to different time periods, it could indicate a sustained tradition of manufacturing. But as long as there is only one example, questions about just how widely they used bone-based weapons will remain unanswered.

Top image: The Neanderthal bone spear point discovered at the Abric Romaní rock shelter in Spain.         Source: Maria D. Guillén / Nature

By Nathan Falde