Indications of bow and stone-tipped arrow use 64 000 years ago in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa
2010/09/01 by Marlize Lombard, Laurel Phillipson · 16 citations
Social Sciences · Earth and Planetary Sciences · #Pleistocene-Era Hominins and Archaeology #Archaeology and Rock Art Studies #Archaeology and ancient environmental studies
paper · doi:10.1017/s0003598x00100134
Abstract
The invention of the bow and arrow was a pivotal moment in the human story and its earliest use is a primary quarry of the modern researcher. Since the organic parts of the weapon – wood, bone, cord and feathers – very rarely survive, the deduction that a bow and arrow was in use depends heavily on the examination of certain classes of stone artefacts and their context. Here the authors apply rigorous analytical reasoning to the task, and demonstrate that, conforming to their exacting checklist, is an early assemblage from Sibudu Cave, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa, which therefore suggests bow and arrow technology in use there 64 millennia ago.
Cited by
- Bowfishing in the United States: History, Status, Ecological Impact, and a Need for Management
- Direct evidence for poison use on microlithic arrowheads in Southern Africa at 60,000 years ago
- Bowhunting in the Magdalenian? A tip cross-sectional area exploration of five antler point types from southwest France
- Behavioral Modernity, Neanderthals and Homo sapiens: a Case for Concept Retirement
- Combining SR-FTIR, SR-LEXRF and PIXE microscopies for residue analysis on Palaeolithic stone artefacts
- Increasing Behavioral Flexibility? An Integrative Macro-Scale Approach to Understanding the Middle Stone Age of Southern Africa
- The Aegean in the Early 7th Millennium BC: Maritime Networks and Colonization
- Archery [wikipedia]
- Making Sense of Residues on Flaked Stone Artefacts: Learning from Blind Tests. [europepmc]
- Beetle and plant arrow poisons of the Ju|'hoan and Hai||om San peoples of Namibia (Insecta, Coleoptera, Chrysomelidae; Plantae, Anacardiaceae, Apocynaceae, Burseraceae). [europepmc]
- The Aegean in the Early 7th Millennium BC: Maritime Networks and Colonization. [europepmc]
- New Experiments and a Model-Driven Approach for Interpreting Middle Stone Age Lithic Point Function Using the Edge Damage Distribution Method. [europepmc]
- Causal Cognition, Force Dynamics and Early Hunting Technologies. [europepmc]
- Regional patterns of diachronic technological change in the Howiesons Poort of southern Africa. [europepmc]
- Howiesons Poort backed artifacts provide evidence for social connectivity across southern Africa during the Final Pleistocene. [europepmc]
- Infectious diseases may have arrested the southward advance of microblades in Upper Palaeolithic East Asia. [europepmc]
Related