Neanderthals used wood for tools and housing, according to impressions preserved at a cliff-side settlement west of Barcelona. The remains offer evidence of a developed woodworking tradition, while a separate find in Iraqi Kurdistan points to a possible fatal attack with a wooden spear about 75,000 years ago.
At the Barcelona-area site, people discarded wooden objects in water rich in calcium carbonate between 62,000 and 40,000 years ago. Minerals formed around the wood before it decayed, preserving hollow casts in travertine limestone. These impressions retain details including tool marks, wood grain and cellular structures.
A different discovery in a cave in Iraqi Kurdistan is a partial Neanderthal skeleton dated to 75,000 years ago. Researchers say a circular puncture about half an inch wide pierced the left shoulder blade and continued downward through the chest. They describe the injury as a targeted strike and say the skeleton may represent the earliest identifiable victim of a wooden-spear killing.
Sources: The New York Times Science.