The Wood Age: How Were the Earliest Hunting Weapons Made and Used?

While stone tools have defined prehistory, early humans also crafted sophisticated wooden tools, including hunting weapons. University of Reading Lecturer in Archaeology Annemieke Milks will explore how the world’s oldest known spears and throwing sticks were made, used, and understood through cutting-edge techniques such as 3D microscopy, microCT scanning and experimental use.

Milks outlines how new analyses, new finds, and restudy of old finds are reshaping debates about early technologies and behaviors. Together, these discoveries reveal that early weaponry was not just technological innovation, but part of a deeply social story about cooperation, skill, and what it meant to be human.

Moderator: Briana Pobiner, paleoanthropologist and educator at Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History.

This program is part of the ongoing HOT (Human Origins Today) Topics series and will be presented as a Zoom video webinar. A link will be emailed to all registrants.

 

Image credit: Photo: MINKUSIMAGES. Copyright: Niedersächsisches Landesamt für Denkmalpflege

Image caption: Wooden spears from Schöningen, Germany