What We Know About Neanderthal Wooden Tools Preserved in Stone

Archaeologists working at the Abric Romaní rock shelter near Barcelona reported finding 597 wooden remains left by Neanderthals, including spears, digging sticks, bark trays, and a club with no known parallel, according to a study in Science Advances described by Ars Technica. The wood itself did not survive. What the team recovered were hollow molds left behind after mineral-rich water encased the objects in a limestone-like crust and the original material rotted away inside it.

What did researchers find at Abric Romaní?

The site sits beneath a cliff of travertine, a type of limestone deposited by calcium-rich spring water, outside Capellades, Spain. Of the 597 wooden remains cataloged, researchers determined that 13 objects had been made or modified by Neanderthals, Ars Technica reported, citing the study. The rest were natural material — trunks, fallen branches, and firewood, mostly Scots pine — that ended up in the same sediment layers. The human-made pieces span roughly 62,000 to 40,000 years ago, placing them among the longest-running records of Neanderthal woodworking found anywhere.

How did wood survive 60,000 years as stone?

It didn't survive as wood. Calcium carbonate from dripping spring water settled over objects left on the shelter floor, sealing them inside a crust. The wood decomposed afterward, leaving a cavity that preserved the object's exact shape — in some cases detailed enough to show the outlines of individual wood cells under a microscope, according to Ars Technica's account of the study. Researchers describe the result as a natural mold, similar in principle to how a fossil can record an organism's form without preserving its original tissue.

What does this tell researchers about Neanderthal technology?

Most prior wooden artifacts from this period — including spears recovered from Schöningen, Germany, and Clacton-on-Sea, England — came from waterlogged sites and mainly document hunting equipment. Abric Romaní differs because it was a living area where Neanderthals slept, cooked, and worked over an estimated 20,000-year span, said M. Gema Chacón, an archaeologist at the Catalan Institute of Human Paleoecology and Social Evolution (IPHES-CERCA) and a co-author of the study, as quoted by Ars Technica.

"We have a sample of wooden tools for different subsistence activities, not only hunting," Chacón said.

Because worked wood turns up across multiple sediment layers rather than in a single isolated find, the pattern indicates that woodworking was a routine, repeated activity at the site rather than a one-time occurrence, per the study as reported by Ars Technica.

How did the team recover and study the molds?

Abric Romaní has been under continuous excavation since 1983, giving researchers decades to refine methods for digging up objects that are, in effect, empty space surrounded by fragile stone. Each find is first outlined, mapped, and photographed in place, and conservation specialists stabilize the surrounding crust before excavation proceeds. "Then we open very carefully one part of the object," Chacón told Ars Technica. Earlier work filled the voids with resin or plaster to produce physical casts; the current approach relies on 3D scanning and photogrammetry to digitize the molds, with 3D-printed replicas used for research and museum display, according to the study.

What questions remain unanswered?

The method identifies shape but not every detail of use or manufacture, and only 13 of the 597 cataloged remains were classified as modified by Neanderthals, leaving open questions about how representative this small sample is of the group's broader toolkit. The unusual club described in the find has no known parallel among previously documented Neanderthal artifacts, the study noted, which may limit immediate comparison to other sites. Ars Technica's report does not specify sample sizes for comparison assemblages at Schöningen, Clacton-on-Sea, or Lehringen, so direct statistical comparison between sites is not yet possible based on the available reporting.

At a glance

• 597 total wooden remains cataloged at Abric Romaní, Spain
• 13 objects identified as made or modified by Neanderthals
• Dated to roughly 62,000 to 40,000 years ago
• Site excavated continuously since 1983, covering an estimated 20,000-year occupation span

The study adds to a small but growing record suggesting Neanderthal toolkits extended well beyond the stone implements that give the Paleolithic its name, even though organic material from that era rarely survives long enough for archaeologists to examine it directly.