Neanderthal stone-tipped spear technology : an experimental and archaeological investigation
The appearance of stone-tipped spear technology is a crucial milestone in human evolution. Stone-tipped spears are potentially one of the earliest composite hunting weapons to be manufactured and used by humans, involving enhancement of technological, cognitive and social skills. However, due to poor preservation conditions and a deficiency of experimental data the detection of stone-tipped spears in the archaeological record and the identification of their delivery systems are still difficult to achieve. The use of stone-tipped spears as distance throwing weapons, or conversely as close-range thrusting weapons is, therefore, an outstanding debate in Palaeolithic archaeology. Accordingly, this thesis presents an integrated experimental and archaeological investigation to distinguish hand-delivered throwing from hand-delivered thrusting stone-tipped spears, to investigate the development of stone-tipped spear technology among Neanderthal populations in the European Middle Palaeolithic. Systematic experiments extensively tested and compared (i) the performance of hand-delivered throwing and thrusting stone-tipped spears, using Levallois point replicas; and (ii) the resulting microscopic use-wear traces and breakage
La Porta, A.
Neanderthal stone-tipped spear technology : an experimental and archaeological investigation. The appearance of stone-tipped spear technology is a crucial milestone in human evolution. Stone-tipped spears are potentially one of the earliest composite hunting weapons to be manufactured and used by humans, involving enhancement of technological, cognitive and social skills. However, due to poor preservation conditions and a deficiency of experimental data the detection of stone-tipped spears in the archaeological record and the identification of their delivery systems are still difficult to achieve. The use of stone-tipped spears as distance throwing weapons, or conversely as close-range thrusting weapons is, therefore, an outstanding debate in Palaeolithic archaeology. Accordingly, this thesis presents an integrated experimental and archaeological investigation to distinguish hand-delivered throwing from hand-delivered thrusting stone-tipped spears, to investigate the development of stone-tipped spear technology among Neanderthal populations in the European Middle Palaeolithic. Systematic experiments extensively tested and compared (i) the performance of hand-delivered throwing and thrusting stone-tipped spears, using Levallois point replicas; and (ii) the resulting microscopic use-wear traces and breakage
neanderthal stone spear technology experimental_archaeological investigation appearance stone spear technology crucial milestone human evolution stone spear potentially early composite hunting weapon manufacture used human involve enhancement technological cognitive social skill however_due poor preservation condition deficiency experimental_data detection stone spear archaeological_record identification delivery system still difficult achieve use stone spear distance throw weapon conversely close range weapon therefore outstanding debate palaeolithic_archaeology accordingly present integrate experimental_archaeological investigation distinguish hand delivered throw hand delivered thrust stone spear investigate development stone spear technology among neanderthal population european middle_palaeolithic systematic extensively test compare performance hand delivered throw thrust stone spear use levallois point replica result microscopic use_wear trace breakage