Indications of bow and stone-tipped arrow use 64 000 years ago in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa

@article{Lombard2010IndicationsOB,
  title={Indications of bow and stone-tipped arrow use 64 000 years ago in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa},
  author={Marlize Lombard and Laurel Phillipson},
  journal={Antiquity},
  year={2010},
  volume={84},
  pages={635 - 648}
}
The invention of the bow and arrow was a pivotal moment in the human story and its earliest use is a primary quarry of the modern researcher. Since the organic parts of the weapon – wood, bone, cord and feathers – very rarely survive, the deduction that a bow and arrow was in use depends heavily on the examination of certain classes of stone artefacts and their context. Here the authors apply rigorous analytical reasoning to the task, and demonstrate that, conforming to their exacting checklist… 
View on Cambridge Press
228 Citations
Highly Influential Citations
12
Background Citations
72
Methods Citations
12
Results Citations
5

228 Citations

Quartz-tipped arrows older than 60 ka: further use-trace evidence from Sibudu, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa

The non-invention of the ceramic arrowhead in world archaeology

Evidence for the use of the bow-and-arrow technology by the first modern humans in the Japanese islands

The Modern Compound Bow

Comparing and contrasting the structures comprising a traditional bow to those of the modern compound bow will provide insight into how these components function in unison to propel arrows.

Beyond a suggestive morphology: were Wardaman stone points exclusively spear armatures?

Abstract Stone points were introduced across northern Australia during the mid-Holocene. The reasons behind this novel technological development are unclear but, given their morphology, an obvious…

The tip cross-sectional areas of poisoned bone arrowheads from southern Africa

Earliest Stone-Tipped Projectiles from the Ethiopian Rift Date to >279,000 Years Ago

Data from velocity-dependent microfracture features, diagnostic damage patterns, and artifact shape reported here indicate that pointed stone artifacts from Ethiopia were used as projectile weapons (in the form of hafted javelin tips) as early as >279,000 years ago, and isolate eastern Africa as a source of modern cultures and biology.

Osseous Projectile Weaponry from Early to Late Middle Stone Age Africa

Discussion about early projectile technology typically includes criteria used to distinguish artefacts used as hafted points from those employed for other purposes, associated faunal and lithic…

Poison arrows and bone utensils in late Pleistocene eastern Africa: evidence from Kuumbi Cave, Zanzibar

ABSTRACT Most of our current knowledge of late Pleistocene African bone technology is drawn from southern African sites, with recent discoveries indicating that bone- and stone-tipped arrows…

Quartz backed tools as arrowheads and hand-cast spearheads: Hunting experiments and macro-fracture analysis

...

References

SHOWING 1-10 OF 51 REFERENCES

Factors Influencing the Use of Stone Projectile Tips

This paper summarizes the results of a pilot study of the ethnographic and ethnohistorical literature designed to address certain questions concerning the use of stone projectile tips. The term “tip”…

70 000-year old geometric backed tools from the Howiesons Poort at Klasies River, South Africa: were they used for hunting?

The Howiesons Poort Industry, with its geometric backed artefacts, has become a well-known typological entity and stratigraphic marker in the Middle Stone Age of South Africa. The Klasies River main…

The origins of lithic projectile point technology: evidence from Africa, the Levant, and Europe

Making a point: wood- versus stone-tipped projectiles

What are the advantages of equipping a wooden arrow with stone, rather than just using the sharpened wooden tip? Very few it seems. In a series of well-controlled experiments the authors show that…

Evidence of hunting and hafting during the Middle Stone Age at Sibidu Cave, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa: a multianalytical approach.

  • M. Lombard
  • Environmental Science
    Journal of human evolution
  • 2005

Experimental use and quantitative performance analysis of triangular flakes (Levallois points) used as arrowheads

The Development of the Bow in Western Europe: A Technological and Functional Perspective

The development and use of archery equipment in prehistoric Europe has always stimulated archaeological interest. Much of the focus of research has been concerned with the temporal origins of the…

Possible shell beads from the Middle Stone Age layers of Sibudu Cave, South Africa

EDGE MODIFICATION AS AN INDICATOR OF FUNCTION AND HANDEDNESS OF ACHEULIAN HANDAXES FROM KARIANDUSI, KENYA

There has been a welcome change in recent years away from classifying lithic implements on purely morphological and stylistic criteria an a much greater interest in, for example, the pro cesses by…

The gripping nature of ochre: the association of ochre with Howiesons Poort adhesives and Later Stone Age mastics from South Africa.

  • M. Lombard
  • Psychology
    Journal of human evolution
  • 2007
...