Neandertals may have hunted in horse-trapping teams 200,000 years ago

Neandertals formed sophisticated hunting parties that drove wild horses into fatal traps around 200,000 years ago.

At Germany’s Schöningen site, wooden spears, double-pointed sticks, stone artifacts and butchered remains of more than 50 horses of various ages are some 100,000 years younger than previously thought, researchers report May 9 in Science Advances. Excavations of this material, now linked to a time when Neandertals inhabited Europe, occurred in the 1990s along an ancient lakeshore.

This new age estimate fits a scenario in which Neandertals learned enough about equine behavior to organize teams that guided horse families to ambush spots, say zooarchaeologist Jarod Hutson and colleagues.