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A new study shows that ancient humans in Europe were making bows and arrows as early as 54,000 years ago, reinforcing the idea that these weapons were instrumental in spreading early modern humans across the continent.
Researchers found the telltale stone points in a rock shelter inhabited by early modern humans in what is now southern France about 54,000 years ago. So far, 12,000-year-old wooden artifacts in northern Europe have been the earliest concrete evidence of bow-and-arrow technology on the continent.
The stone points are the earliest evidence in Europe of the use of bows and arrows people of the early modern period and suggests that technology may have given this human lineage an advantage over Neanderthals in hunting prey, the researchers suggest in an article published Feb. 22 in the journal scientific advances (opens in new tab).
Meanwhile, there is no evidence that Neanderthals ever used a bow and arrow (although it appears they did skilled at throwing javelins (opens in new tab)). And that could be one of the reasons why early modern humans supplanted Neanderthals across Europe around 40,000 years ago, according to research led by scientists in France, including Laura Metz (opens in new tab)Archaeologist at the University of Aix-Marseille, and Ludovic Slimak (opens in new tab)Cultural anthropologist at the University of Toulouse-Jean.
Related: Weapons carved from human bones come from a drowned land bridge between Britain and Europe
“These technologies may have given modern humans a competitive advantage over local Neanderthal societies,” the researchers write.
Stone arrowheads
In a study published last year in the journal Science Advances (opens in new tab)many of the same researchers reported finding teeth and stone artifacts showing that early modern humans inhabited the site between 56,700 and 51,700 years ago – pushing back the earliest known date of early modern humans’ arrival in Europe by about 10,000 years.
The new study examined hundreds of stone artifacts from the same location and roughly the same age, many of which showed telltale signs of use as projectile weapons, including more than 100 dots that appear to be parts of arrowheads. Many resembled arrowheads made later homo sapiensand some had fractures and other damage to their tips that could have resulted from impact.
Researchers also made replica spikes from stones found near the rock shelter and shaped them into arrows. Darts for Atlatls (javelin throwers)and spears, which they then used to shoot or stab dead goats to simulate prey. They found that some of the larger points would have been effective with spears, but that the smallest points would not have done enough damage without the power of the bow and arrow.
Ancient Advantage?
However, the stone and bone points found in the rock shelter at Grotte Mandrin in the Rhône Valley are not the oldest evidence of a bow and arrow. Alleged arrowheads, also associated with early modern humans and found in South Africa, are more than 70,000 years old.
But the evidence from Grotte Mandrin suggests that early modern humans were proficient with bows and arrows in the very first stage of their incursion into Europe, contrary to the belief of some archaeologists that they only mastered this technology after they had supplanted the Neanderthals. For example, some archaeologists have argued that the small dots found at the earliest South African sites were created during the process of making spears (opens in new tab) and may not be evidence of early arrows.
The new study suggests that the use of bows, arrows and atlatls may have been a key advantage for modern humans as they spread across Europe, eventually replacing Neanderthals.
“The deployment of these advanced technologies may be critical in understanding the remarkable spread of modern populations,” they wrote.
according to a Report in Nature magazine (opens in new tab)Grotte Mandrin also contains the bones of horses, and researchers believe early modern humans may have hunted these and bison that migrate through the Rhône Valley.
