TORONTO, ON – A University of Toronto-led team of anthropologists has
found evidence that human ancestors used stone-tipped weapons for
hunting 500,000 years ago – 200,000 years earlier than previously
thought.
"This changes the way we think about early human adaptations and
capacities before the origin of our own species," says Jayne Wilkins, a
PhD candidate in the Department of Anthropology at the University of
Toronto and lead author of a new study in
Science. "Although both
Neandertals and humans used stone-tipped spears, this is the first
evidence that the technology originated prior to or near the divergence
of these two species," says Wilkins.
Attaching stone points to spears – known as 'hafting' – was an
important advance in hunting weaponry for early humans. Hafted tools
require more effort and foreplanning to manufacture, but a sharp stone
point on the end of a spear can increase its killing power.
Hafted spear tips are common in Stone Age archaeological sites after
300,000 years ago. This new study shows that they were also used in the
early Middle Pleistocene, a period associated with Homo heidelbergensis
and the last common ancestor of Neandertals and modern humans.
"It now looks like some of the traits that we associate with modern
humans and our nearest relatives can be traced further back in our
lineage", Wilkins says.
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IMAGE:
These are examples of experimental hafted
points from a University of Toronto-led study. Points were hafted to
wooden dowels using Acacia resin and sinew and then thrust into a
springbok...
Click here for more information.
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Wilkins and colleagues from Arizona State University and the
University of Cape Town examined 500,000-year-old stone points from the
South African archaeological site of Kathu Pan 1 and determined that
they had functioned as spear tips.
Point function was determined by comparing wear on the ancient
points to damage inflicted on modern experimental points used to spear a
springbok carcass target with a calibrated crossbow. This method has
been used effectively to study weaponry from more recent contexts in the
Middle East and southern Africa. The stone points exhibit certain types
of breaks that occur more commonly when they are used to tip spears
compared to other uses.
"The archaeological points have damage that is very similar to
replica spear points used in our spearing experiment," says Wilkins.
"This type of damage is not easily created through other processes."
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IMAGE:
This is a mounted crossbow used for
spearing experiments in a University of Toronto-led study that showed
that ~500,000-year-old points from Kathu Pan 1 were used as hafted spear
tips....
Click here for more information.
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The findings are reported in the paper "Evidence for Early Hafted
Hunting Technology" published in the November 16, 2012 issue of
Science.
Other authors contributing to the study are Benjamin Schoville from
Arizona State University, Kyle Brown of the University of Cape Town, and
University of Toronto archaeologist Michael Chazan. Funding for the
research was provided by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research
Council of Canada, the National Science Foundation, and the Hyde Family
Foundation. Logistical support came from the South African Heritage
Resources Agency and the McGregor Museum, Kimberley, South Africa.
The points were recovered during 1979-1982 excavations by Peter
Beaumont of the McGregor Museum. In 2010, a team directed by Chazan
reported that the point-bearing deposits at Kathu Pan 1 dated to
~500,000 years ago using optically stimulated luminescence and
U-series/electron spin resonance methods. The dating analyses were
carried out by Naomi Porat, Geological Survey of Israel, and Rainer
Grün, Australian National University.
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MEDIA CONTACTS:
Jayne Wilkins
Department of Anthropology
University of Toronto
jayne.wilkins@utoronto.ca
Sean Bettam
Communications, Faculty of Arts & Science
University of Toronto
s.bettam@utoronto.ca
416-946-7950
