Weapons that work at a distance
The bow makes hunting something else entirely
See it on the timeline →In depth
Sibudu Cave in South Africa has yielded small stone points with impact damage and adhesive residue, interpreted as arrowheads and dated to around 64,000 years. Projectile weapons require a composite tool of several materials — shaft, point, binder, sinew — and therefore a production chain of several stages held in mind at once. The cognitive demand may matter more than the hunting advantage. The bow spreads to every continent humans reach, and remains the principal ranged weapon until firearms.
For children
Until now a hunter had to get right up close to the prey. With a bow you could hit something thirty metres away without putting yourself at risk. That changed not only hunting but what war meant, for more than fifty thousand years afterwards.
Connects to
Part of Terra Saga — the story of Earth on a timeline. terrasaga.org