Lower Palaeolithic hunting spears from Germany
Lower Palaeolithic hunting spears from Germany
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DOI：
10.1038/385807a0
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发表时间：
1997-02-27
期刊：
影响因子：
64.8
通讯作者：
Thieme, H
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Thieme, H
人们对旧石器时代早期和中期技术的有机成分知之甚少，尤其是木制工具(1，2)。在这里，我描述了一些大约40万年前的木制投掷长矛，它们是1995年在德国Schoningen的更新世遗址发现的。它们被认为是迄今为止发现的人类使用过的最古老的完整狩猎武器。这些长矛与石器和十多匹被屠宰的马的遗骸有关，强烈表明系统的狩猎，包括远见、规划和适当技术的使用，是前现代原始人行为技能的一部分。最早在中更新世使用尖端长矛可能意味着许多关于早期人类行为和文化的现有理论必须修改。
Little is known about the organic component of Lower and Middle Palaeolithic technologies, particular with respect to wooden tools(1,2). Here I describe some wooden throwing spears about 400,000 years old that were discovered in 1995 at the Pleistocene site at Schoningen, Germany. They are thought to be the oldest complete hunting weapons so far discovered to have been used by humans. Pound in association with stone tools and the butchered remains of more than ten horses, the spears strongly suggest that systematic hunting, involving foresight, planning and the use of appropriate technology, was part of the behavioural repertoire of pre-modern hominids. The use of sophisticated spears as early as the Middle Pleistocene may mean that many current theories on early human behaviour and culture must be revised.