Modern humans, Homo sapiens, used bows and arrows in Europe 54,000 years ago, 40,000 years earlier than previously documented, according to a study presenting evidence gathered in a cave in southern France.
In Africa, the use of bows and arrows has been documented for 70,000 years, but in Europe, until now, the oldest evidence was between 10,000 and 12,000 years old, in Germany, according to a study published Wednesday in the journal Science Advances.
This new study is taken from tools found in the Mandrin cave in the Drôme. The site has been excavated since 1990, and various archaeological layers trace more than 80,000 years of occupation of the site, where Homo sapiens, modern man, and Neanderthal man alternately lived.
One layer, called “E”, has been attributed to the presence of Homo Sapiens 54,000 years ago, trapped between two layers that demonstrate the presence of Neanderthals.
However, in this layer “E” hundreds of carved stone points were found, with a finer execution than those present in the other layers.
These tips turned out to be the key for the researchers, since the other materials used for archery, such as wood, fibers or leather, are much more fragile and therefore disappear over time, for so, in general, it is difficult to identify this technique.
To verify the function of these tips, some of which are smaller than a coin, the scientists made replicas and attached them to arrowheads, using a bow on dead animals.
“We could only project them onto the animals with a bow, because they were too small and light to be effective,” Laure Metz, a researcher at the University of Aix-Marseille and lead author of the study, explained to Agence France. Press (AFP).
“We had to use this method of propulsion,” he added.
In addition, the fractures obtained at the ends of the replicas, due to contact with the animal’s bone, were then compared with those observed in the flint points found in the cave.
“The fractures, in many if not all of them, were impact fractures,” Laure Metz stressed.
At that time, the occupants of the cave had to hunt horses, bison and deer, and animal bones were found inside.
The arrival of Homo Sapiens in Western Europe has been brought forward to about 54,000 years ago, thanks to the discoveries made in the Mandrin cave.
The researchers showed, in the previous study, that the two human species alternately occupied the site.
Sapiens and Neanderthals probably interbred, according to Laure Metz, without it being possible to say what “the nature of their meeting” might have been, peaceful or not.
But the Neanderthals who inhabited the cave after Homo sapiens continued to use traditional weapons such as spears without developing propulsion techniques, he said.
“The traditions and technologies of these two populations were therefore profoundly different, illustrating a remarkable technological advantage for modern populations during their expansion across the European continent,” the study authors concluded.
Source: TSF
