Researchers peel back layers of Neanderthal woodworking legacy

Researchers identified 13 wooden artifacts among nearly 600 wood specimens from 16 layers at the Abric Romaní rock shelter in Catalonia, dating between roughly 62,000 and 40,000 years ago, published Wednesday in Science Advances. The haul includes two spears, one about 8 feet long, pointed sticks, bark trays, likely structural elements and a club-like object with no known parallel in the prehistoric record.

Wood normally rots before it can fossilize, but calcium carbonate from surrounding travertine formed molds around the decaying material, preserving detail down to the cellular level in places. Scraping marks on the club show deliberate shaping, though researchers say its exact use remains unclear.

The team concludes woodworking was fully integrated into Neanderthal technology alongside stone tools, and that the general scarcity of preserved wood has likely hidden how central it was all along.

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