Clever, tech-savvy Neanderthals 'were long-distance killers'

[Judi Lynn]

Clever, tech-savvy Neanderthals 'were long-distance killers'



John von Radowitz

January 26 2019 2:30 AM


Neanderthals had the brains to build weapons of long-distance destruction, research has shown.

A team of javelin athletes helped scientists prove the extinct cousins of modern humans were far more efficient hunters than previously thought. Experts had assumed Neanderthals lacked the technology and skill to kill from a significant distance with their crude, wooden spears.

The new study paints a very different picture of their abilities. Using accurate replicas of Neanderthal spears dating back 300,000 years, the javelin throwers managed to hit a target up to 20 metres away.

This was double the distance scientists had believed the "Schoningen" spears could be thrown.

More:
https://www.independent.ie/world-news/europe/clever-techsavvy-neanderthals-were-longdistance-killers-37751015.html

[Judi Lynn]

1. Neanderthals: javelin athletes helped us show how effective they were at hunting with weapons

January 25, 2019 5.18am EST

Neanderthals used to be portrayed as unintelligent and technologically deficient, a species that went extinct because of its inferiority to humans. But researchers now generally agree that Neanderthals were adept predators, innovative builders and symbolic thinkers. So how were early humans actually different from Neanderthals? It’s getting increasingly difficult to tell. But the capability to kill at a distance – such as with a bow and arrow – has long been thought of thought of as one important threshold in our human success story.

The earliest weapons we know of, likely made by Neanderthals, are simple wooden spears, and have been discovered at sites dating from 400,000 years ago. Recent research confirming that Neanderthals did use such spears to hunt definitively rejected outdated ideas that Neanderthals were only scavengers.

But exactly how they used the spears remains unclear. Early spears could have been used as contact weapons for thrusting into prey. But they could also have be thrown by hand as javelin or used for self-defence or as probes for locating frozen carcasses. Our experiment, published in Scientific Reports, is the first to study the ballistics and accuracy of such early spears when thrown by hand – shedding light on how these spears were actually used.

We worked with a group of six club-level javelin athletes from the UK who threw replicas of a spear from the 300,000-year-old Neanderthal site of Schöningen in Germany at targets set at different distances. We recorded when they hit and missed the target, and filmed release and impacts with high-speed video cameras. This allowed us to evaluate accuracy and capture aspects of flight and impact that have never been scientifically analysed.

More:
https://theconversation.com/neanderthals-javelin-athletes-helped-us-show-how-effective-they-were-at-hunting-with-weapons-110464

[TreasonousBastard]

2. Every time I read something like this, I wonder just how many...

academic studies of ballistics, anatomy, and other things were done before someone had the bright idea to just throw the spears to see how it was done.

[Bob Loblaw]

3. They were also experts in

saving big on auto insurance.

[cstanleytech]

4. One is even President right now of the US.