In 1836, Christian Jürgensen Thomsen, a Danish antiquarian, brought the first semblance of order to prehistory, suggesting that the early hominids of Europe had gone through three stages of technological development that were reflected in the production of tools. The basic chronology — Stone Age to Bronze Age to Iron Age — now underpins the archaeology of most of the Old World. Thomsen could well have substituted Wood Age for Stone Age, according to Thomas Terberger, head of research at the Department of Cultural Heritage of Lower Saxony, in Germany. …Dr. Terberger published a study last month that provided the first comprehensive report on the wooden objects excavated from 1994 to 2008 in northern Germany. …The objects date from the end of a warm interglacial period 300,000 years ago, about when early Neanderthals were supplanting Homo heidelbergensis, their immediate predecessors in Europe. The projectiles unearthed at the Schöningen site are considered the oldest preserved hunting weapons. [a NY Times subscription is required to access the full story]