Trays, poles and a possible club: Neanderthals were skilled woodworkers, too

Stone survives for millennia, so Neanderthals are famous for stone tools — but wood was part of daily life, too. At a rock shelter near Barcelona, floods and mineral-rich water preserved nearly 600 wooden objects, or the imprints they left behind, from 40,000 to 62,000 years ago. Thirteen were clearly shaped by hand, among them bark trays, poles and pointed sticks, offering a rare glimpse of the everyday craft that almost always rotted away.