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Early Humans Experimented To Get Bow And Arrow Just Right, Findings Suggest
Science Daily ^ | 6-11-2008 | University of Missouri-Columbia.

Posted on 06/10/2008 8:30:00 PM PDT by blam

Early Humans Experimented To Get Bow And Arrow Just Right, Findings Suggest

Arrow points (top) were reworked and refined through experimentation, often using dart points (bottom) as a starting place. The difference between the two types of points (size and neck/stem width) can be observed in this photo. (Credit: University of Missouri)

ScienceDaily (Jun. 11, 2008) — In today's fast-paced, technologically advanced world, people often take the innovation of new technology for granted without giving much thought to the trial-and-error experimentation that makes technology useful in everyday life. When the "cutting-edge" technology of the bow and arrow was introduced to the world, it changed the way humans hunted and fought. University of Missouri archaeologists have discovered that early man, on the way to perfecting the performance of this new weapon, engaged in experimental research, producing a great variety of projectile points in the quest for the best, most effective system.

"Technological innovation and change has become a topic that interests people," said R. Lee Lyman, professor and chair of the University of Missouri Department of Anthropology. "When the bow and arrow appeared in North America, roughly 1,500 years ago, it eventually replaced the atlatl (spear thrower) and dart. The introduction of the bow and arrow, a different weapon delivery system, demanded some innovative thinking and technology. In other words, one could not just shoot a dart from a bow. Components like the shaft and arrow point needed to be reinvented."

Because the necessary flight dynamics and mechanics of the arrow wouldn't have been fully understood, the indigenous people at the time would have experimented--trying all sorts of points with different types of shafts, attempting to discover the best combinations. This reinvention process can be seen archaeologically through an increase in the number and variation of projectile points--indicating the transition period between the atlatl and the bow and arrow.

"Everyone is looking for the better mouse trap," Lyman said. "Once a change is made in one variable, it may prompt changes in another variable because the two are mechanically linked. For example, if something gets longer, generally, it will get heavier. This is called a cascade effect. This, in combination with experimentation, resulted in the tremendous variation in projectile points."

Lyman said there is evidence of an initial burst of variation in projectile points at the time bow-and-arrow technology was introduced and that prehistoric artisans experimentally sought arrow points that worked effectively. Following that initial burst, less-effective projectile models were discarded, causing archaeologists to see a reduction in variation.

In the course of this research, Lyman and his collaborators, T.L VanPool and M.J. O'Brien, analyzed the data from more than 1,000 projectile points from three separate geographical locations. Lyman's study, "Variation in North American dart points and arrow points when one, or both are present," will be published in an issue of the Journal of Archaeological Science in fall 2008.

Adapted from materials provided by University of Missouri-Columbia.


TOPICS: News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: arrow; bow; earlyhumans; experiment; godsgravesglyphs
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To: blam
Of course, the ultimate development of the arrow was the "everful quiver". Invented by the elves of Middle-earth, you could fire dozens of them for hours and never run out of arrows.

21 posted on 06/10/2008 9:22:32 PM PDT by Telepathic Intruder
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To: shibumi

You mean they didn’t have OSHA then? ;)


22 posted on 06/10/2008 9:24:45 PM PDT by exit82 (People get the government they deserve. And they are about to get it--in spades.)
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To: exit82
The first bow must have been square, with the arrow having a point on both ends.

Excellent for richochet shots.

23 posted on 06/10/2008 9:26:59 PM PDT by going hot (Happiness is a momma deuce)
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To: mylife

I want to know what the carbon footprint of early humans was. I want to know why they were such a violent culture that they needed weapons in the first place.


24 posted on 06/10/2008 9:27:11 PM PDT by Dilbert San Diego
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To: VanShuyten
"When the bow and arrow appeared in North America, roughly 1,500 years ago..." "The interesting part is that they didn’t have bows and arrows until 500 AD. That’s a little hard to believe". took me a minute to figure out how you arrived at that, nice observation. Jesus must've not started the calendar yet or AD must stand for After...Duh? http://www.roman-emperors.org/big500.htm
25 posted on 06/10/2008 9:28:30 PM PDT by Beowulf9
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To: Dilbert San Diego

Maybe we can get congress to fund a study!

No sh***er here. I know of a fellow who got a Gov grant to study if birds were “right winged” or “left winged”


26 posted on 06/10/2008 9:29:59 PM PDT by mylife (The Roar Of The Masses Could Be Farts)
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To: VanShuyten

I don’t believe it either.

I think they have found arrowheads 30,000 years ago in the NW Sahara.

and from at least 12,000 years ago in North America


27 posted on 06/10/2008 9:30:50 PM PDT by wardaddy (it's hot as hell again in Dixie)
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To: blam

You must know what a recursive bow is .... Those who invented it are in a new movie “Mongol” Hope it gets yr way

Movie is about Genghis Khan


28 posted on 06/10/2008 9:33:48 PM PDT by dennisw (We have an idiocracy not a democracy)
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To: blam

Interesting enough, but you mean some people actually think humans invented a perfect arrowhead all at once, without having to experiment with the design? Do we really need a scientific study to tell us this stuff?


29 posted on 06/10/2008 9:35:24 PM PDT by Williams
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To: dennisw

“Warriors of the Steppes” ping

http://www.google.com/search?sourceid=navclient&ie=UTF-8&rlz=1T4GGIH_enUS269US271&q=%22%22Warriors+of+the+Steppes%22%22


30 posted on 06/10/2008 9:35:26 PM PDT by dennisw (We have an idiocracy not a democracy)
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To: VanShuyten

What’s the Star Trek ( TOS ) episode where Spock and Kirk, I think improvise a bow and arrow weapon, and when they use it, the arrow is barely propelled at all, and flies sideways and looks like they just threw it ?

The “point” being, how WOULD you get the idea for this?


31 posted on 06/10/2008 9:36:49 PM PDT by dr_lew
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To: blam

I’ll venture that the atlatl preceded the bow http://www.atlatl.com/


32 posted on 06/10/2008 9:37:01 PM PDT by mylife (The Roar Of The Masses Could Be Farts)
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To: mylife

Kinda like “whippin” Apples off the end of sticks ;)


33 posted on 06/10/2008 9:40:30 PM PDT by mylife (The Roar Of The Masses Could Be Farts)
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To: shibumi
Actually the bow looked pretty much as it does now, and the arrows did too. It just took them a while to get the string on the backside of the bow. They finally got it right after about 30 cavemen (thought to belong to the United Socialist Democrat Caveweapon Builders Union) impaled themselves in the throat.

Sort of like the first gun:


34 posted on 06/10/2008 9:47:58 PM PDT by Squeako (Bipartisan: Because you can't destroy America all by yourself.)
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To: dr_lew
"The “point” being, how WOULD you get the idea for this?"


"It was an inspired guess."

- Eric Idle
35 posted on 06/10/2008 9:51:49 PM PDT by shibumi (".....panta en pasin....." - Origen)
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To: Dilbert San Diego
BROOKS (as 2,000 year old man): We spoke Rock. Basic Rock...Two hundred years before Hebrew, there was the Rock language. Or Rock talk.
REINER (as interviewer): Could you give us an example of that?
BROOKS: Yes. 'Hey, don't throw that rock at me! What are you doing with that rock? Put down that rock!'

BTW, it has occurred to me that this joke, while it acknowledges the primevality of violence, takes the pacifist side with its representation of the 2000 year old man's resort to pleading. I think this is the impression it leaves subjectively as well; that Brooks' character has somehow prevailed over the absurdity of violence. At any rate, it's politically laden.

36 posted on 06/10/2008 9:54:24 PM PDT by dr_lew
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To: shibumi

“And then again on Tuesday morning....”

Michael Palin


37 posted on 06/10/2008 9:54:37 PM PDT by mylife (The Roar Of The Masses Could Be Farts)
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To: blam
Early Humans Experimented To Get Bow And Arrow Just Right, Findings Suggest

Wow! And here I was, just believing that this was how it had worked since every other technology in humanity's repertoire worked this way...

38 posted on 06/10/2008 9:58:21 PM PDT by CurlyDave
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To: blam
Early Humans Experimented To Get Bow And Arrow Just Right, Findings Suggest


39 posted on 06/10/2008 9:59:19 PM PDT by uglybiker (I do not suffer from mental illness. I quite enjoy it, actually.)
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To: blam; StayAt HomeMother; Ernest_at_the_Beach; 1ofmanyfree; 21twelve; 24Karet; 3AngelaD; 49th; ...

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Thanks Blam. Despite the guffaws on this thread, this is pretty interesting. Sidebar: There are "Old World" Stone Age town sites filled with arrowheads (also fired clay slingstones) from (taa-daa!) battles when those towns were apparently attacked and perhaps sacked -- coinciding with mass burials, and numerous apparently simultaneous individual burials of people killed by arrow wounds (the arrowheads were in the skeleton). Makes one wonder how long ago the Americas would have to have been populated across Beringia for the immigrants to not know the bow.

To all -- please ping me to other topics which are appropriate for the GGG list.
GGG managers are Blam, StayAt HomeMother, and Ernest_at_the_Beach
 

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40 posted on 06/10/2008 9:59:31 PM PDT by SunkenCiv (https://secure.freerepublic.com/donate/_________________________Profile updated Friday, May 30, 2008)
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