Scientists working in South Africa have unearthed the oldest-known spear
tips, apparently made by a common ancestor of people and Neandertals
around 500,000 years ago.
More than 200 stone points found at a site called Kathu Pan 1 display
modifications and damage consistent with having been attached to spear
handles and hurled at animal prey such as springbok, say Jayne Wilkins,
an anthropologist at the University of Toronto, and her colleagues.
“These were close-range weapons, either thrusting spears or spears thrown from fairly short distances,” Wilkins says.
A description of the South African spear points appears in the Nov. 16 Science.
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