Ancient weapons of destruction

What makes us human? It is equipped with deadly weapons that defeat the Neanderthals and dominate the world.

When studying stone spears or arrowheads dating back more than 70,000 years, researchers think they are the most modern weapon of the time. The mastery and use of these weapons allowed humanity to defeat the first opponents in the history of evolution and thus conquer the world.

The stone spears are found in a place called Pinnacle Point in Mossel Bay, South Africa. Compared to the time when people still eat feathers in holes, the technique of "forging" such stone weapons is considered to be extremely complicated. The stone is hewn, then baked on fire, then sharpened with one edge, and the other edge blunts. As a result, humans create slender, sharp spears, about 3cm long, allowing them to be easily inserted into wooden lumber, turning into light spears but launching deadly thrusts.

The stone is carefully cut and burned on red fire before being attached to the head of the spear or arrow

According to a report in Nature, the team of archaeologists from Arizona State University said that such spears can be launched in long-range attacks, and of course create stronger force than the school. Combination Experts say that at the time, the number one rival could threaten the ambition of controlling human surface, which is Neanderthals, could only produce heavy, unsuitable heads of art. for any range, whether melee or long range.

'When people leave Africa and enter the territory of the Neanderthals, our ancestors carry weapons with horrifying killings (of course in ancient times)' , explains Professor Curtis Marean, about stone weapons. In addition to the high social cooperation habits of humankind, no enemy can resist. This contributed to explaining the expansion of humanity worldwide and the extinction of other families, such as the Neanderthals.

The finding has shattered many theories in anthropology, with some experts suggest that the use of stone technology may have disappeared and reappeared from time to time, not by scale. Human evolution as Marean's team pointed out. Specifically, scholars once explained that the first stone weapon technology was invented 60,000 years ago, and lost for many thousands of years before being reinvented about 40,000 - 50,000 years ago.

Besides, the new research results also help to push back the time when people began to have more complex and more human thinking abilities. Previously, scientists accepted the human hypothesis that changed behavior in a smarter way 40,000 years ago, but with the report of Arizona State University experts, that time must be over 70,000 years.