How did early humans use sharpened rocks to bring down megafauna 13,000 years ago? Did they throw spears tipped with carefully crafted, razor-sharp rocks called Clovis points? Did they surround and jab mammoths and mastodons? Or did they scavenge wounded animals, using Clovis points as a versatile tool to harvest meat and bones for food and supplies?
UC Berkeley archaeologists say the answer might be none of the above.
Instead, researchers say humans may have braced the butt of their pointed spears against the ground and angled the weapon upward in a way that would impale a charging animal. The force would have driven the spear deeper into the predator’s body, unleashing a more damaging blow than even the strongest prehistoric hunters would have been capable of on their own.
- ravhall ( @ravhall@discuss.online ) English10•28 days ago
humans may have braced the butt
He he he
- 100_kg_90_de_belin ( @100_kg_90_de_belin@feddit.it ) English3•28 days ago
He he he… >!braced!<
- N0body ( @N0body@lemmy.dbzer0.com ) English8•28 days ago
Sheer balls of steel letting that massive beast charge right at you while holding a spear and bracing for impact.
- Microplasticbrain ( @Microplasticbrain@lemm.ee ) English3•28 days ago
Isn’t this what the guy did on accident in the movie 10,000 B.C.
- Ellia Plissken ( @tilefan@lemm.ee ) English3•28 days ago
how are you tricking an animal into charging straight into a tree or something?
- DarkThoughts ( @DarkThoughts@fedia.io ) 3•28 days ago
Into a tree? What are you talking about?
- luciole (he/him) ( @luciole@beehaw.org ) English1•27 days ago
This makes way more sense and it’s way more epic. Well played, ancestors.