[Faline]

Some of our early human ancestors may have been smarter, and deadlier, than we thought, according to a new study of what may be Earth's oldest stone spear points.

If the dating is correct, it suggests our evolutionary forebears mastered the art of the stone-tipped spear half a million years ago—some 250,000 years earlier than previously thought.



Discovering that the world's oldest known spear points may come from a Homo heidelbergensis site is "like finding an iPod in a Roman Empire site," said paleoanthropologist John Shea, who wasn't part of the study. "It's that level of weirdness."

But it isn't weird to imagine these stocky big-game hunters using stone tools or even wooden spears in what's now South Africa. Until now, though, there's been no evidence H. heidelbergensis had the know-how to put the two together.

To fasten a handle to a blade—a technique called hafting—a prehistoric hunter likely would have had to procure a stone blade, a wooden shaft, twine woven from plants or animal sinew, and glue made from tree resin. The glue itself may have required a mastery of fire, to liquefy the resin, said Shea, of New York's Stony Brook University.

Supplies in hand, the toolmaker would have had to assemble the spear sturdily, "so you don't get killed the first time you use it on a Cape buffalo," Shea said.

Read the full article here:
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/n...rthal-hunting/

[Mizz_Russia]

They started getting smart after homo habilis who first started making the stone flakes. Inventing the hand axe. About 2.0 million years ago. After homo habilis the brain started growing bigger in size Huge difference between homo habilis and homo erectus brains... and used oldowan tools. Similar or exactly th same as the spears. But that is pretty cool.

[Pyramid_Head]

That is awesome, nice find!

[gatagato]

Great find
There's so little we know about our origins and the world in general...

[kellyhound]

they always do discoveries showing things were older than they thought.
weird they haven't found spear tips between 250000 and 500000 years ago.
maybe they dated these tips wrong.

[Sharon]

Interesting

[Oswald2001]

The beginnings of the military/industrial complex.