World’s Oldest Weapons Discovered
Archaeologists have discovered eight extremely well-preserved spears that are an astonishing 300,000 years old, making them the oldest known weapons ever found. They probably belonged to members of the species homo heidelbergensis, although no human remains have yet been found at the site. Homo heidelbergensis lived throughout the Old World between 600,000 and 300,000 years ago, and may be the direct ancestor of both Homo neanderthalensis and Homo sapiens.
The University of Tübingen team uncovered the spearheads in an open-cast brown coal mine in Schöningen, Germany. They were found alongside animal remains, showing, says the team, that their users were highly skilled craftsmen and hunters, with a capacity for abstract thought comparable to our own.