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from the YOU-try-sneaking-up-and-stabbing-a-wild-animal dept.
Archaeologist Annemieke Milks' recently published study, albeit done in 2015, suggests that some extinct hominids probably didn't just stab prey from a close distance, but may have also occasionally threw spears. The study had a group of athletes, particularly strong javelin throwers, throw replicas of a 300,000-year-old wooden spear, one of nine ancient hunting tools discovered at Germany's Schöningen coal mine, at a bale of hay for accuracy.
Many researchers have suspected that Neandertals or their ancestors snuck up on and stabbed prey with the pointed wooden rods. That idea aligns with a popular assumption that Stone Age Homo sapiens had a monopoly on hurling spears at prey. Yet bodies capable of accurate and powerful throwing may have emerged nearly 2 million years ago in Homo erectus (SN Online: 6/26/13). So why not Neandertals?
Now data from high-speed video cameras at Milks' unusual throw-off, held in January 2015 and reported online January 25 in Scientific Reports, suggest that Neandertals might have used the spears for long-range hunting.
(Score: 2) by Immerman on Monday February 04 2019, @05:11PM (1 child)
Actually, our stamina is *extremely* high, it's only our speed that sucks. Even so there's a credible argument out there that early humans may have hunted deer, etc. across the steps by running them into the ground. We could have chased deer across the plains relentlessly, they'd outrun us whenever we got close, but they tire over time, while we can just keep going all day long until they drop from exhaustion.
Of course you're not going to carry back your kill across a day's running journey, so the rest of the troop would have to follow you instead. And a curious property of marathon running is that, unlike virtually every other sport, there's very little statistical variation in marathon-running performance with age or gender, aside from the usual spike of "young men in their prime". Anyone in good health and practice can keep up with the main pack for a very long time.
(Score: 2) by Immerman on Monday February 04 2019, @05:13PM
"...across the steppes..."