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ARCHAEOLOGY

Making an impact

Nature Ecology & Evolution volume 2, pages 1057–1058 (2018)Cite this article

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Two deer bones from the 120,000-year-old Neanderthal site of Neumark-Nord 1 bear damage consistent with impact from a wooden spear. The hunting lesions are the earliest clear examples of such bone damage and give clues to how Neanderthals hunted their prey.

Archaeologically preserved ‘hunting lesions’ — skeletal damage on prey resulting from weapon impacts — provide clear evidence that humans engaged in hunting. Writing in Nature Ecology & Evolution, Gaudzinski-Windheuser et al.1 present the earliest unambiguous examples of hunting lesions, discovered in faunal collections from the 120,000-year-old Neanderthal site of Neumark-Nord 1 in Germany. Their work demonstrates that Neanderthals hunted prey and sheds light on their hunting strategies, such as the kinds of prey they exploited, whether throwing or thrusting was employed, and in what kinds of habitat they hunted.

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Fig. 1: Early wooden spears and a possible hunting lesion.

Annemieke Milks

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  1. Institute of Archaeology, UCL, London, UK

    Annemieke Milks

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Correspondence to Annemieke Milks.

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Milks, A. Making an impact. Nat Ecol Evol 2, 1057–1058 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41559-018-0600-9

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