Spear

The spear was not invented. It was discovered—in the same sense that fire was discovered, by creatures who recognized a pattern in nature and learned to reproduce it. A pointed stick hurts. Every hominin who ever jabbed at prey or predator learned this. What required invention was the patience to sharpen wood deliberately, and the foresight to keep such weapons ready.

The oldest known wooden spears come from Schöningen, a lignite mine in northern Germany where waterlogged conditions preserved organic materials that would otherwise have rotted away. Eight complete spears and fragments of at least two others, dating to between 337,000 and 300,000 years ago (though a 2025 study suggests they may be as young as 200,000 years), demonstrate that spear-making was already a sophisticated craft long before modern Homo sapiens emerged.

The Schöningen spears were not crude sticks. They were precision instruments. Most were made from slow-growing spruce, except for one of pine. They range from 1.84 to 2.53 meters in length, with carefully shaped double points. The makers positioned the points at the base of the trees, where the wood is hardest, and offset the soft inner pith from the tip—evidence of understanding wood's structural properties. These were not accidental successes but the products of accumulated knowledge, passed between generations.

Experimental archaeology reveals the weapons' potential. Modern javelin athletes threw replicas at distances of 15 to 20 meters with significant penetrating force—double the range scientists previously estimated. The spears were balanced for throwing as well as thrusting, versatile weapons for hunting prey that could not be approached at close range.

The adjacent possible for spear-making required few prerequisites. Stone tools, already in use for more than two million years, provided the cutting edges to shape wood. Fire, controlled by this period, hardened points and could straighten shafts. The raw material—straight branches or saplings—grew in every forest. What was required was the cognitive capacity for planning: to envision a future hunt, to invest labor in preparation, to maintain a weapon through periods when it was not needed.

The species that made the Schöningen spears remains uncertain because no hominin remains were found at the site. The candidates are Homo heidelbergensis or early Neanderthals—either way, a species not our own. This evidence disturbed comfortable assumptions about human uniqueness. If Neanderthals or their ancestors could manufacture sophisticated weapons requiring foresight, social coordination, and multi-step planning, the cognitive gap between them and modern humans narrows considerably.

Earlier evidence suggests spear-like weapons may extend even further into the past. A 2012 study from Kathu Pan in South Africa proposes that hafted stone-tipped spears—a more complex technology requiring binding materials—may date to 500,000 years ago. The Clacton spear point from England, a fire-hardened wooden tip, dates to approximately 400,000 years ago. The full history of spear technology likely stretches back further than organic preservation allows us to see.

The cascade from the spear extends through every subsequent development in projectile weapons. Hafted spears with stone tips appeared by at least 500,000 years ago. Spear-throwers, which extended range through leverage, appeared by 30,000 years ago. Javelins, lances, pikes, and bayonets are all elaborations on the same fundamental principle: a pointed object, propelled with force, at a distance greater than the target can reach.

By 2026, the spear's descendants remain in service—from military bayonets to whaling harpoons to the poles used by big game hunters. The conditions that made spear technology inevitable persist: predators and prey move faster than unarmed humans can pursue, and distance confers safety. The Schöningen makers understood this 300,000 years ago.