Event Date: Friday, November 23, 2018
Wooden Spears and Broken Bones:
Lower Paleolithic Hominin Subsistence at Schöningen, Germany
2018 Department of Anthropology Spence Lecture
Prof. Dr. Thijs van Kolfschoten
Emeritus Professor, Faculty of Archaeology, Leiden University
Friday November 23rd, 2:30-3:30pm
Social Science Centre 2257
The famous archaeological site of Schöningen, Germany, is most well-known for the discovery of wooden spears made around 300,000 years old. These are the world's oldest human-made wooden artifacts ever found. The recovery of other wooden artifacts, stone tools, and the bones of butchered animals like horses, speaks to the repeated presence of pre-modern humans along this ancient lakeside in the Lower Paleolithic period. Professor Dr. Thijs van Kolfschoren, a zooarchaeologist at Leiden University, The Netherlands, has been working at this site since 1992, and has analysed tens of thousands of ancient animal bones, including those from saber-tooth cats, wolves, and many herbivores. Through detailed analyses of animal remains and other artifacts, he reconstructs what the ancient environment was like and what past people were eating. His work shows that these early humans were active hunters with specialized tool kits.
Generously supported by the Social Science Student Donation Fund