Station: [113] Homo Sapiens' Tools

For thousands of years the Neanderthals production techniques remained the same and this only changed when the modern human came along. Modern humans made blades out of flint stone that were designed for specific tasks such as cutting, grating, scraping, gouging, slicing, shredding, or scoring. They carved standard, long, narrow blades from a pre-prepared core stone. The tips or long edges were then worked more finely. 

More refined production techniques led to new weapon shapes. The Neanderthals had already used thrust lances and spears and those spears with flint stone, bone or ivory tips reached their target from a distance of 15 metres away. This distance could be doubled with the help of spear throwers created by homo sapiens. The principle is similar to that of the bow and arrow: a very long, thin spear is propelled from behind. 

At the end of the Last Ice Age bows and arrows replaced spear throwers. Light birch and pine woods spread across the landscape and new species of animals well adapted to woodland living meant that new hunting strategies developed. Late Ice Age hunters used backed points with one sharp and one blunt retouched longitudinal edge, as projectile tips. These were later replaced by tanged points. 

Bone, wooden or ivory objects have rarely been found in Saxony because they decay in the lime-deficient, often well-ventilated soil. From other areas however, we know that Homo sapiens invented the sewing needle made of bone to make warm clothes as protection from the biting cold.