External ballistics of Pleistocene hand-thrown spears: experimental performance data and implications for human evolution
External ballistics of Pleistocene hand-thrown spears: experimental performance data and implications for human evolution
复制标题
更新世手投矛的外部弹道：实验性能数据及其对人类进化的影响
DOI：
10.1038/s41598-018-37904-w
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发表时间：
2019
影响因子：
4.6
通讯作者：
M. Pope
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
A. Milks;David Parker;M. Pope
武器的出现--旨在杀人的技术--是人类进化中一个关键但尚未确立的门槛。它是一个重要的行为标志，代表生态，认知，语言和社会行为的进化变化。虽然最早的武器通常被认为是手持的，因此是短程的，但后来出现的远程武器是一个关键的发展。投射物被认为是对接触武器的改进，并且被一些人认为是在中石器时代和旧石器时代晚期才起源于我们自己的物种。尽管远距离武器在完全行为现代性的出现中具有重要意义，但缺乏使用训练有素的投掷者进行系统的实验来评估投掷长矛在飞行和撞击过程中的弹道学。本文通过对训练有素的标枪运动员的试验结果，为关键性能参数提供了新的估计。在距离和冲击能量的重叠之间的手扔长矛和长矛投掷者的证据，和技能出现在成功使用的一个重要因素。结果表明，远距离狩猎很可能是尼安德特人狩猎策略的一部分，由此产生的行为灵活性与我们自己的物种密切相关。
The appearance of weaponry - technology designed to kill - is a critical but poorly established threshold in human evolution. It is an important behavioural marker representing evolutionary changes in ecology, cognition, language and social behaviours. While the earliest weapons are often considered to be hand-held and consequently short-ranged, the subsequent appearance of distance weapons is a crucial development. Projectiles are seen as an improvement over contact weapons, and are considered by some to have originated only with our own species in the Middle Stone Age and Upper Palaeolithic. Despite the importance of distance weapons in the emergence of full behavioral modernity, systematic experimentation using trained throwers to evaluate the ballistics of thrown spears during flight and at impact is lacking. This paper addresses this by presenting results from a trial of trained javelin athletes, providing new estimates for key performance parameters. Overlaps in distances and impact energies between hand-thrown spears and spearthrowers are evidenced, and skill emerges as a significant factor in successful use. The results show that distance hunting was likely within the repertoire of hunting strategies of Neanderthals, and the resulting behavioural flexibility closely mirrors that of our own species.