The Evolution Of The Pointed Stick
A thread concerning humanity's greatest invention - a long stick with a sharp bit on the end.
A thread concerning humanity's greatest invention - a long stick with a sharp bit on the end.
Sharp sticks are not unique to humans of course, the most rudimentary and ad hoc spears are made by chimps. See how the stick is used to skewer a bush baby.
The existence of the tipped stick in deep time has long been frustrated by the poor preservation of wood, therefore we must infer that spearheads began around 500,000 years ago.
The stick in its full unhafted glory appears to us around 450,000 years ago, in Clacton-upon-Sea in England of all places.
Behold the sharp stabby power.
Behold the sharp stabby power.
The famous Schöningen Spears (400kyo) advanced the field of stick technology, with fire hardening at the business end and double-pointy sticks potentially being the first javelins.
Neanderthal stick innovation included making tars and glues to attach sharp stones on the end of their sticks. This increases the longevity and power of the sharp bit.
Around 50kyo a new group of humans arrived in Europe bearing a radical new technology - a projectile system to propel small razor tipped sticks from a distance. The bow-and-arrow.
A later group of humans arrived around 40kyo, this time to stay. These Aurignacians produced a special pointy stick called the 'split base points'.
The era of stick creativity had begun.
The era of stick creativity had begun.
Their successors - the Gravettians and Epigravettians - would make the pointed end more dangerous by glueing sharp edges and barbs onto their sticks.
They also pushed the experimental limits of stick tech by creating the first boomerang!
After the ice we see new directions for sticks, most famously the stick thrower, which hugely increased the distance, accuracy and power of the sharp stick.
Magdalenian sticks became elaborate constructions of points, hooks, barbs and sharp bits. These were truly a people who loved their sharp sticks.
The Mesolithic saw the refinement of sharp sticks as everything shrank. Crafting the perfect stick involved tiny modifications to stones to target specific species.
Look at these sharp sticks, we even have blunt sticks now for hunting birds. You don't want blood all over those beautiful swan feathers.
Sharp stick tech explodes all around the world, in fact every culture can be defined by their uniquely shaped sharp stick ends. We probably know more about prehistoric people's stick evolution than anything else.
With the Neolithic and spread of agriculture we get fun new sharp stone shapes.
But in the field of sharp stick creativity the farmers are far too interested in efficient ways to cut grass, so we'll leave them there.
Thankfully the wheat botherers are redeemed through the discovery of metals, which of course opens up entire new universes in the space of sharp sticks. The rest as they say is history.
There seems to be no limit and no sense of boredom with sharp sticks. Inventing new and fun ways to use them has been a major part of our time here.
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