This yew thrusting lance was then the oldest complete spear ever found. (A part of a spear from an earlier period had previously been found in Clacton-on-Sea in the UK.) The Lehringen spear is still the only one found lodged in the skeleton of an extinct species of animal. Neanderthals were the only humans in Europe at this time, as far as we know, so the spear appeared to provide paradigm-shifting proof that Neanderthals were big game hunters, not scavengers. It should have become a world-famous find.