Archaeologists analyzing nearly six hundred wooden artifacts preserved in a Spanish rock shelter reveal that Neanderthal technology relied on organic materials, challenging assumptions that their daily toolkit was based primarily on stone.
For decades, the archaeological record of early human technology has presented a heavily skewed picture. Because flint and stone survive for hundreds of thousands of years while organic matter decays, researchers built their understanding of Neanderthal culture around chipped stone points and scrapers. A comprehensive new study published in Science Advances shows that woodwork was a routine part of Middle Paleolithic life.
Excavating 600 Wooden Artifacts at Abric Romaní
The findings stem from decades of careful excavation at Abric Romaní, a rock shelter situated in Capellades, about 50 kilometers west of Barcelona. Palmira Saladié, M. Gema Chacón, and Josep Vallverdú now direct the work. Uranium-thorium dating showed that the shelter was used from 60,000 to 40,000 years ago, while samples from lower, still unexcavated deposits indicate that people were present there as early as 110,000 years ago.
Within these strata, periodic slow flooding covered the organic debris, and mineral-rich water carrying calcium carbonate repeatedly coated organic remains, protecting the site’s surface from animals and forming layers of travertine. When the original timber eventually rotted away, the surrounding minerals left behind hollow molds and cavities that faithfully reflect the original shape with great precision, with some detailed enough to show internal tissue structure.
These items provide a rare window into domestic chores, hunting practices, and the spatial organization of living areas.
Neanderthals Used Diverse Wooden Tools for Daily Life
The catalog of confirmed tools ranges from close-range hunting gear to household items. The findings at Abric Romaní are different because the finds come from a place where Neanderthals lived, slept, cooked, and made tools over the course of some 20,000 years, yielding a sample of wooden tools for different subsistence activities rather than only hunting. The discoveries include spears, digging sticks, bark trays, parts of shelters, and a club unlike anything seen before. The better-preserved spear measures 2.45 meters (just over 8 feet), longer than a standard door is tall, and its shape fits a thrusting spear, designed for stabbing at close range rather than for throwing. A second spear measures 1.99 meters, or about 6.5 feet, and shows clear signs of deliberate woodworking. While comparable Paleolithic weapons are known from waterlogged European sites like Schöningen and Lehringen in Germany and Clacton-on-Sea in England, the Schöningen spears were long dated to about 300,000 years ago, although a 2025 study in Science Advances argued they may be closer to 200,000. Furthermore, the same site in Spain had already produced the first bone spear point attributed to Neanderthals, reported in 2024 by Paula Mateo-Lomba and colleagues in Scientific Reports.
Household objects discovered near hearths and working areas included four flat pieces of charred juniper bark turned up in levels H and O, between 30 and 55 centimeters (12 to 22 inches) long, oval, with a hollowed upper face, halfway between a plate and a shallow bowl.
Other structural elements included a straight, thin five-meter log stripped of branches recorded in another area, which could have been the basis of a windbreak screen or part of a structure for sleeping and resting, alongside crossed sticks near a hearth, possibly part of a raised structure used for food preparation. Yet the discovery that most surprised the research team came from level P, which produced an odd object carved from a single piece of wood, with a clear handle and a thick, pointed end, so it looks like a mace. Tool marks show someone shaped it on purpose, but nobody knows what it was for, and no known object matches it in the prehistoric record.
“This particular configuration is what we have not been able to find a convincing parallel for in the prehistoric record.”
Josep Vallverdú, study co-author and archaeologist at the Catalan Institute of Human Palaeoecology and Social Evolution (IPHES-CERCA)
Reevaluating Neanderthal Technological Capabilities
“Neanderthal technology was not only made of stone; it was also made of wood. The archaeological record gives us a very biased picture of prehistoric technology. We see the stone because it survives, while a huge part of their material culture has simply disappeared.”
Josep Vallverdú, study co-author and archaeologist at the Catalan Institute of Human Palaeoecology and Social Evolution (IPHES-CERCA)
Sites like Abric Romaní reveal a hidden aspect of Neanderthals that has been missing. Naoki Morimoto at Kyoto University in Japan describes the wooden objects as remarkable, confirming that organic materials form a part of prehistoric technology that stone artifacts alone cannot explain.
Additional reporting contributed by Dirk Leder and M. Gema Chacón.
