A study conducted by the TraceoLab of the University of Liège has found some evidence that long-range weapons existed 10,000 years earlier than previously estimated. 31,000 years ago, hunter-gatherers who settled along the Hain River in southern Belgium were already using spear throwers for hunting. This is the finding of a new study conducted by TraceoLab at the University of Liège.
Materials found at the Maisières-Canal archaeological site prove that this hunting technique was used 10,000 years earlier than the oldest known preserved spear throwers. The discovery, published in the journal Scientific Reports, prompts archaeologists to reconsider the age of this important technological innovation.
Spear Thrower: The Revolution of Hunting
A spear thrower is a weapon used to throw darts, which are large arrow-like projectiles that are typically over two meters in length. The spear thrower can throw darts up to eighty meters away.
The invention of long-range hunting weapons had a major impact on human evolution because it changed hunting methods, the dynamic relationship between humans and prey, and the diet and social organization of prehistoric hunter-gatherer groups. Therefore, the date of the invention and dissemination of these weapons has been a hotly debated topic in the scientific community.
Challenges facing weapons identification
TraceoLab researcher Justin Coppe explains: "Early weapons have so far been difficult to detect in archaeological sites because they are made from rarely preserved organic components. Armed stone points from ancient projectiles, more commonly encountered in archaeological excavations, are difficult to reliably link to specific weapons".
Most recently published accounts of the early use of spears and bows in Europe and Africa rely solely on the size of the point of impact to link them to these weapon systems. However, ethnographic studies and experimental tests have shown that arrow, dart, and spear points vary greatly in size and overlap in range, casting serious doubt on this reasoning.
An innovative method developed by archaeologists at TraceoLab combines ballistic analysis and fracture mechanics to better understand the traces preserved on flint points.
"We conducted a large-scale experiment firing replicas of Paleolithic projectiles using different weapons, such as spears, bows and crossbows," explains Noora Taipale, FNRS researcher at TraceoLab. By carefully examining the fractures on these stone points, we were able to understand how each weapon affected the stone point fractures when impacting the target.
Each weapon left distinct marks on the stone tips, allowing archaeologists to match these marks to archaeological finds. In a way, it's like identifying a gun based on the marks the barrel leaves on the bullet, a practice in forensic science.
The perfect match between the experimental spear-thrower samples and the projectiles from Maisiel-Canal confirms that these weapons were used by the hunters who occupied the site. This discovery encourages archaeologists to further apply this method to understand the true nature of ancient long-range weapons. Future work at TraceoLab will focus on adapting the analysis method to other archaeological contexts to help achieve this goal.