Hi Jacques,
It seems that there have been a number of experiments using wooden spears to see if they can penetrate a carcass. Some are able, some are unable. I would be more comfortable with the results should the researchers had recruited the javelin throwers from the track team to make the spear casts. Although many anthro- and paleontologists are in excellant shape, there is no substitute for extensive experience with the tool to provide the best similation, and not to forget that most ancient humans were significantly more robust than modern researchers, in the first place. Most modern atheletes weight-train which would help the accuracy of the similation.
All in all I do not doubt that hand cast wooden spears could have been sufficiently deadly to feed ancient humans. For that matter I also have no doubt that ancient hunters often sat in a sufficiently large enough tree waiting for dangerous prey to bleed to death. I somehow doubt that they were stupid enough to have not had escape paths or safe perches planned out in advance. Or perhaps I should say they would hardly have had the opportunity to be that unprepared twice. A very complete selection factor... It is very important to remember how extensively the knockdown power of the gun has changed our approaches to hunting.
Dutch
Not a particularly illuminating piece, but since it just came out …
Jacques Cinq-Mars
PS Note the filing date!
telegraph.co.uk
(Filed: 22/05/2002)
Inside the mind of an ancient axeman
A javelin thrower, a dead deer and a pile of flint chippings are bringing us closer to our Stone Age ancestors. David Derbyshire reports
Sherlock Holmes appreciated the importance of stabbing dead animals with spears in the name of science. The fictional detective once told Watson over breakfast while brandishing a ferocious weapon:
"If you could have looked into [the butcher's] back shop,you would have seen a dead pig swung from a hook in a ceiling, and a gentleman in his shirt sleeves furiously stabbing at it with this weapon. I was that energetic person, and I have satisfied myself that by no exertion of my strength can I transfix the pig with a single blow. Perhaps you would care to try?"
Stone me: Archaeologist Mark Roberts with a Palaeolithic hand axe from Boxgrove
One hundred years on and scientists are still trying. In one of the more unusual examples of experimental archaeology, researchers piecing together the finds from Boxgrove, Britain's most important Stone Age site, recruited a university athlete to hurl a wooden spear at a dead deer.
The method was unorthodox. But the results may have helped to settle a long-standing row over whether our ancestors living 500,000 years ago were spear-throwing hunters or simply scavengers. More importantly, they allowed scientists to get closer to understanding the mind of Boxgrove Man, Britain's earliest known inhabitant.
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