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Narrowing Down When Humans Began Hurling Spears

Posted by samzenpus on from the give-it-a-throw dept.

sciencehabit writes "Archaeologists have long debated when early humans began hurling stone-tipped spears and darts at large prey. By throwing a spear, instead of thrusting it, humans could hunt buffalo and other dangerous game from a safe distance, with less risk of a goring or mauling. But direct evidence of this hunting technique in early sites has been lacking. A new study of impact marks on the bones of ancient prey shows that such sophisticated killing techniques go back at least 90,000 years ago in Africa and offers a new method of determining how prehistoric hunters made their kills."

6 of 208 comments (clear)

  1. Brains are a funny thing by koan · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I'll bet if we could travel back in time and watch these creatures innovate we would have far more respect for their ingenuity in their time.
    I'll bet they came up with solutions we wouldn't think of that were lost to time.

    --
    "If any question why we died, Tell them because our fathers lied."
    1. Re:Brains are a funny thing by punman · · Score: 5, Funny

      The Romain Empire used concrete extensively, even hydraulic cement (cures under water).

      After the Empire fell, they went back to building with rocks.

      Lettuce hear more of this Romaine empire ...

  2. Damascus steel was lost for centuries by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    It is said it could cleanly cut through a falling silk scarf.

    I thought at first that the manufacturing process was lost because it was kept a trade secret. However, this paper finds that the superior properties of the steel come from impurities that were present in the original iron mine. When iron from a different mine used used, the steelsmiths were unable to reproduce the original's properties. Within a generation, production was entirely abandoned.

    1. Re:Damascus steel was lost for centuries by fuzzyfuzzyfungus · · Score: 5, Insightful

      The history of ironworking in general is a total mess: Not only were the best techniques(at any given time and place) some combination of trade secrets and National Security Stuff, leading to dubious recordkeeping, iron and most iron alloys corrode enthusiastically, often leaving archeologists to stare at an intriguing-looking rust stain and puzzle from there.

      Then(as in the case of Damascus steel, as you mention) the properties of iron(actually a pretty lousy material, pure) change quite dramatically with the addition of relatively small amounts of various alloying agents, frequently ones that weren't even identified as distinct substances(much less 'identified' as 'elements') until centuries later, in addition to being sensitive to heating/cooling parameters and any other treatments affecting crystal structure.

      There were improvements over time, of course; but until fairly recently, with modern metallurgy and chemistry, even a good-faith effort by the original craftsman to share his technique would likely leave us with considerable puzzling left to do.

  3. Re:I don't think man ever hunted spears. by JustOK · · Score: 5, Funny

    Leave Britney ALONE!!!!

    --
    rewriting history since 2109
  4. Re:Just Look For... by Tablizer · · Score: 5, Funny

    But the National Spear Association lobbied against controls. Even cave babies were allowed to own spears.

    --
    Table-ized A.I.