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Post by FWS on Nov 16, 2012 12:50:27 GMT -6
Man hunted with spears half a million years agoMan began hunting with stone-tipped spears half a million years ago, some 200,000 years earlier than previously thought, according to a new study. By Telegraph reporters 16 Nov 2012 Scientists have discovered our ancestors began hunting with stone-tipped spears 500,000 years ago - with the help of a special crossbow and a dead springbok. Up until recently, it was thought attaching a stone tip to a spear - known as "hafting" - started about 300,000 years ago. However, by comparing the wear visible on 500,000-year-old stone points found in South Africa with modern experimental points fired by a specially calibrated crossbow at a springbok carcass, scientists proved they had been used as spear tips for hunting. Leader author Jayne Wilkins, a PhD candidate in the Department of Anthropology at the University of Toronto in Canada, said the research suggested stone-tipped spears could have been in use before the divergence of early humans and Neanderthals. She said: "This changes the way we think about early human adaptations and capacities before the origin of our own species. "Although both Neanderthals and humans used stone-tipped spears, this is the first evidence that the technology originated prior to or near the divergence of these two species." Attaching stone points to spears was an important advance in hunting weaponry for early humans. Hafted tools require more effort and planning to manufacture, but a sharp stone point on the end of a spear can increase its killing power. Hafted spear tips are common in Stone Age archaeological sites after 300,000 years ago. The new study - which examined 500,00-year-old stone points from the South African archaeological site of Kathu Pan 1- shows that they were also used in the early Middle Pleistocene, a period associated with Homo heidelbergensis, the last common ancestor of Neandertals, and modern humans. Ms Wilkins and colleagues from Arizona State University and the University of Cape Town, compared the ancient stone points to experimental points which they hafted to wooden dowels using Acacia resin and sinew before thrusting them into a springbok with a mounted crossbow. The method has been used effectively to study weaponry from more recent contexts in the Middle East and southern Africa. The stone points exhibit certain types of breaks that occur more commonly when they are used to tip spears compared to other uses. "The archaeological points have damage that is very similar to replica spear points used in our spearing experiment," said Ms Wilkins. "This type of damage is not easily created through other processes." "It now looks like some of the traits that we associate with modern humans and our nearest relatives can be traced further back in our lineage." The findings were published in the journal Science  |
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Post by Jarhead620 on Nov 17, 2012 21:38:41 GMT -6
This would get the ax over on T-man. Their world is only 6000 years old.
Larry
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Post by FWS on Nov 18, 2012 0:01:37 GMT -6
Aren't they too busy circulating petitions to secede from the Union ?  |
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Post by James on Nov 18, 2012 0:03:37 GMT -6
Their world is also pretty diminutive.
This is a significant discovery. Up to now they'd only found hand tools this age.
The earth and rest of the solar system are about 4.5 billion years old, making the age of humans only the last few seconds before midnight on a clock. Very recent discoveries lead cosmologists and astronomers to conclude that the universe is 13.72 billion years old.
The universe may have 400 billion galaxies, and there are about 100 billion stars per galaxy. We're pretty insignificant in the big picture.
Jim
P.S. - Know any good places to talk politics and religion? I mean somewhere you can get halfway intelligent responses.
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Post by FWS on Nov 18, 2012 0:50:31 GMT -6
Not where there are hunters and/or trappers |
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Post by mmwb (Andrew Parker) on Nov 18, 2012 1:26:08 GMT -6
"The universe may have 400 billion galaxies, and there are about 100 billion stars per galaxy. We're pretty insignificant in the big picture."
Statistically perhaps, but significance is otherwise a subjective term. lol
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Post by James on Nov 18, 2012 3:33:01 GMT -6
Yeah, I know.
For instance, I am the most important being in the universe. :-)
Jim
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Post by FWS on Nov 18, 2012 11:53:36 GMT -6
You are to you, but to the rest you are just a statistic, part of the 'angry old white men' grouping that is dying out and being replaced.
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Post by C1972 on Nov 19, 2012 22:47:44 GMT -6
Didn't man live along side the dinosaurs?? ;(
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Post by James on Nov 19, 2012 22:53:00 GMT -6
No. Early humans hunted dinosaurs with stone-tipped spears.
Jim
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Post by C1972 on Nov 20, 2012 8:55:32 GMT -6
No. Early humans hunted dinosaurs with stone-tipped spears. Jim That's right Jim, I easily forget things like that  . Now that I'm convinced the Earth is 9,000 years old, doesn't that make carbon dating and the fossil record irrelevant? What about the Galapagos Islands or Australia or Madagascar? Sea snakes, marine iguanas, Komodo dragons? Golly gee, that creationist sure was doin' some mighty fine creatin' wouldn't you say? |
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Post by mtcbrlatrap on Nov 21, 2012 10:38:41 GMT -6
Who knows how long a "year" was before the Roman Calendar came about? We have farmers that vote for candidates who believe the world started about 5500 BC but turn right around and plant seeds in soil that is 14,000 years old above rocks that are 580 million years old that are above bed rock that is 3.9 billion years old. Go figure.
Actually this could explain a lot. There may be a valid belief in that the world they live in nature etc. is totally separate from human beings and thus the desire or need to use it up or not treat these resource assets as part of our whole global or world environment. That could actually help explain some of the attitude towards how natural resources are treated or viewed and yes unfortunately how even human and other life forms are viewed if they don't meet the narrow range that is felt appropriate or desirable.
Bryce
Bryce
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Post by James on Nov 21, 2012 12:53:59 GMT -6
A year has always been one complete orbit of the earth around the sun, which takes the same length of time as it did millions of years back.
Currently, a year is 365.25 days, but over the last few billion years our day has been growing longer and longer, due to gravitational friction between the earth and the moon. A day is defined as one complete revolution of the earth around its own axis.
What the Roman calendar did was arbitrarily divide the year into 12 months and 52 weeks.
Jim
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Post by FWS on Nov 21, 2012 19:39:03 GMT -6
Heresy like that would get you banned on another forum, just start talking about heliocentrism to a group of geocentric flat Earthers like that and watch what happens.
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Post by James on Nov 21, 2012 20:13:17 GMT -6
Whoops. I mean the sun goes around the earth of course. Doesn't the Bible make this clear?
There's an incident in the Old Testament where the sun stops in the middle of the sky. Naturally, the earth couldn't have suddenly stopped rotating about its axis; if it did, all humans and other life would have been ripped to bits that went flying into the air.
The Bible is infallible, so this proves conclusively that the sun travels around the earth.
Jim
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Post by FWS on Nov 22, 2012 10:55:52 GMT -6
Too late, you'll have to put yourself under house arrest for the duration of your life. You might merit an apology in 400 years but don't bet on it.
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Post by wolfrunner on Nov 22, 2012 16:51:02 GMT -6
.......300 years ago man used stone tipped spears here In North America and had not Invented the wheel yet ! Native Americans were a Stone age people !
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Post by blackhammer on Nov 22, 2012 16:59:59 GMT -6
.......300 years ago man used stone tipped spears here In North America and had not Invented the wheel yet ! Native Americans were a Stone age people ! +2 and then came firewater, darn white men. lol |
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Post by FWS on Nov 22, 2012 21:31:00 GMT -6
Whose technologies we use heavily today and form the basis for the economies of several states.
They were quite a bit more advanced that you give them credit for, some groups moreso than others. And a wheeled cart would probably be a hindrance in much of North America, the women were already carrying the heavy loads and to have them haul a wheeled cart over rough ground would have just slowed things down.
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Post by trappnman on Nov 24, 2012 6:43:53 GMT -6
don't they sell spearing lic for deer in Alabama?
where they use a heavy weighted spear from tree stands?
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