New Chapter:
Early humans did a lot of scavenging too.
Homo Australipithecus / Hablis / Erectus / Heidelbergensis / Neanderthalensis / Denisovans
by ziddina 54 Replies latest social current
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ziddina
Sizemik:
I assume they're a modification of a simple throwing spear. For them to be so widespread certainly denotes age . . . that sort of thing could only have travelled with migration I would think.
Someone had to have half a mind for physics . . . it's not the sort of thing you discover by accident.
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ziddina
Zid:
Okay, before I lose this link...
Here's an interesting site. Discusses the possibility of the killing of a neanderthal by a H.sapiens...
http://www.ishtarsgate.com/forum/archive/index.php/t-319.html
Now I need to go back and find that site I forgot to link about the Aborigines...
That is a HUGE woomba woomera that Aboriginal man is carrying!! I thought atl-atls/woomeras were smaller...???
They look very different from the European/North American versions that I've seen, so far...
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ziddina
New Chapter:
Yeah--it is an adaptation of the throwing spear the best they can tell. But it allows for a spear that is half the size but many times more deadly. It was genius--and it is quite old.
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ziddina
New Chapter:
I think at one time, they theorized that Neanderthal anatomy did not allow them to be effective throwers. They would not have had the power and accuracy needed (they were powerful, but their arms and shoulder inhibited the motion). But they are learning things so quickly now, I would look up more recent info on it. But it was an interesting theory.
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ziddina
New Chapter:
Neanderthal's short squat body, massive limbs and lack of backward displacement at the shoulder joint may have hampered their ability to incorporate projectile weaponry. According to Jill Rhoades, an evolutionary anthropologist examinations of early modern European fossils show the backward displacement at the shoulder joint, but none of the small sampling of Neanderthal's skeletal remains carry this anatomical characteristic.
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ziddina
New Chapter:
More from the same site:
Projectile weaponry was an important component of early man's survival toolkit. Traces of projectile weaponry have been found in Africa dating back some 80,000 years. The mass migration by early man out of Africa into Europe some 40,000 to 50,000 years ago, show early European man developed and used bow and arrows and other projectile devices. The Rhodes/Churchill small sampling of Neanderthal's skeletal remains indicate he was outmatched by early modern man's development of a "throwing arm". This anatomical feature is measured by the degree of humeral retroversion in the dominant arm and in bilateral asymmetry.
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botchtowersociety
Art or pareidoilia on the part of modern excavators?
Rock art discovery could shed light on when New World was settled
The figure, which appears to be squatting with his arms outstretched, is about 12 inches tall from head to feet and about 8 inches wide. The phallus is about 2 inches long, about the same length as the man's left arm.
"The figure, which we named 'the horny little man', is probably linked to some kind of fertility ritual," Mr Neves said
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ziddina
Botchtower:
Neanderthal's short squat body, massive limbs and lack of backward displacement at the shoulder joint may have hampered their ability to incorporate projectile weaponry. According to Jill Rhoades, an evolutionary anthropologist examinations of early modern European fossils show the backward displacement at the shoulder joint, but none of the small sampling of Neanderthal's skeletal remains carry this anatomical characteristic.
http://phys.org/news151326825.html
Already by Homo Heidelbergensis (or Erectus) we were throwing javelins.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sch%C3%B6ninger_Speere
The spears, deformed by the load of the sediment pressure, are made from slim, straight spruce stems – except for spear IV which is made from pine wood. Their dimensions are between 1.8 and 2.5 metres.
They have been worked very thoroughly and are evidence of highly developed technological skills and of workmanlike tradition. Like in today’s tournament javelins, the greatest diameter and therefore its centre of gravity is in the front third of the shaft. The tips are worked symmetrically from the base of the stems, the end of the tips were worked beside the medullary ray, the weakest part of the stem, on purpose.
In their throwing qualities, the wooden Schoeningen spears are equal to today’s tournament javelins. During tests, athletes could throw true to original replicas up to 70 metres. [8] [9] The choice of the wood is likely to be climatically determined, because during the cooler climate near the end of the interglacial, conifers grew close to the site of the finds. [10]
So I don't buy that they were melee hunters only.
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ziddina
New Chapter:
BTS---do you know of any theories that deal with Neanderthal specifically? When I first made the comment, I hesitated, because even though the common theory was that N. didn't use projectile weapons much, I thought I had heard there was some reconsideration. But then I just googled it quickly and saw that at least some sources are still holding to that. Or are you just making a logical connection because of H.H.---which is fine---but I just wondered if there was something more I could read.
NC
