African Killing At a Distance: Long-distance Spear-throwers key to Cro-Magnon success over Neanderthals: Stephen E. Churchill, Jill Rhodes

Stephen E. Churchill vid Q & A 

  Recent analyses of MSA and Middle Paleolithic points suggest that true long-range projectile weaponry — most likely in the form of spearthrower-delivered darts — evolved in Africa sometime between 90–70 ky BP, and was part of the tool kit of modern humans who expanded out of Africa after this time. This possibility has important implications for our understanding of behavior change during the MSA, the evolution of modern human predatory behavior and subsistence strategies, and the nature of the competitive interactions that occurred between modern humans and the archaic humans they encountered on their diaspora from Africa.

https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-1-4020-9699-0_15 

 In contrast, recent work on humeral torsion angles in these same groups reveals some evidence to suggest that throwing-based projectile weaponry was commonly used by the earliest modern Europeans.

 

 The Spear-thrower!!

31,000-Year-Old Spearthrower Points Unearthed in Belgium

 The findings push back the dates for spearthrower use in Europe by over 10,000 years.

 propulsion physics of spear-thrower

 

 120 feet distance!!

long distance weapon hunting out of Africa

 The dart-tip category, derived from 40 North American examples only (Shea, 2006, Shott, 1997, Thomas, 1978), also does not consider the possibility of two distinct dart-tip TCSA values wherein large terrestrial spearthrowers were used for hunting medium- and large-sized animals, and small Arctic-style spearthrowers to hunt marine mammals and birds (Cattelain, 1997, Lombard and Churchill, 2022). In the context of this study, we will therefore not aim to distinguish between probable javelin and dart tips (also see discussion on Australian leilira blades in Lombard, 2023).

 spear throwing research

Mandrin M, France, at ∼54 ka: Based on stone points, morpho-type, and macro-fractures Metz (2015) concluded that only a propulsion system such as the bow could compensate for the low kinetic energy of the very small, impacted pieces (also see Metz and Slimak, 2017; Slimak et al., 2022).

It is therefore increasingly feasible to hypothesise that bow hunting arrived in Eurasia with Homo sapiens, which is in line with evidence for bow-and-arrow technology in sub-Saharan Africa since ∼80–60 000 years ago (for a summary of the evidence see Lombard and Shea, 2021). Previous notions of the evolutionary chronology of Old World Palaeolithic hunting weapons – wherein spear hunting evolved into dart hunting, and dart hunting into bow hunting – are therefore no longer the only plausible explanation.