A 40+ year old Neanderthal died in Northern Iraq some 50,000 years ago.1,2 He did not die of natural causes. One of his ribs (L9) shows evidence of a partially healed wound and an adjacent rib (L8) shows blunt trauma. The wound is nothing more than a small nick 1/16” wide, 1/8" deep and 3/8" long (1.5mm x 3mm x 9.7mm).3
“d) lateral (external) view of L8 aligned in anatomical position with e) L9. Note the slight remodeling and involvement of inferior aspect of L8 in the injury”. 4
(Photo: Courtesy of Dr. Steven E. Churchill, Department of Evolutionary Anthropology, Duke University.)
An approximate 9 mm green circle was added to the image to show the hypothetical alignment of an arrow shaft. The blunt damage to L8 is slight and smoothly curved. The distance between the two ribs is approximately 8 mm. The San hunters use arrow shafts 9 mm in diameter.5 Modern wooden arrow shafts range in size from 7.9 mm (5/16“) to 9.1 mm (23/64”) depending on the power of the bow.6
If the Neanderthal was exhaling when tragedy struck, the slight damage to L8 may have been caused by the arrow shaft as it pushed this rib up and out of the way as it passed into the lung.
Researchers concluded that the wound is most consistent with a lightweight, long-range projectile weapon. If correct, the nick did nothing to slow the projectile from entering the lung. In addition, an edge of the projectile’s tip may have fragmented and temporarily lodged in the nick. If so, this would explain healing around the wound but none down inside the nick. The healing stopped when death came.
Spear and dart diameters are 2 to 4 times larger than arrow shafts and would have caused extensive damage to both ribs.7, 8 Only an arrow shaft is small enough to pass between two ribs and leave the type of damage displayed by the Neanderthal fossil.
The projectile’s tip was never recovered. Since this fossil was discovered in 1957, some 50 years before ancient arrowheads that look little like typical arrowheads were discovered in South Africa, perhaps there is a small stone blade with a damaged edge sitting in a drawer in the Smithsonian.
The following photo shows impact scars and fractures on ~45,000 year old arrowheads recovered from Grotta del Cavallo in Southern Italy.9 The impact scars show that all of these projectiles were mounted longitudinally. They are all slightly larger than an arrow shaft resulting in the sharp side of these lithics acting as a cutting blade on one side of the shaft. It is this type of arrow that would explain why one rib of the Neanderthal was cut while the adjacent rib sustained only blunt trauma.
Damaged ~45,000 year old small blades from Grotta del Cavallo in Southern Italy showing impact scars and fractures.
(Photo: Courtesy of Dr. Adriana Moroni, University of Siena.)
The blade that struck the ribs of the Iraqi Neanderthal was vertically aligned. Historically, the Comanches of the Great Plains used vertically aligned arrowheads when hunting game such as the buffalo in order to minimize the chance of the arrow being stopped by a rib. When at war their arrowheads were aligned horizontally for the very same reason.10 If the ancient blade had been horizontally aligned, evidence of this act of violence would have been lost to history.
Bone points have been found in Sri Lanka that date back 48,000 years and are consistent in design, size and weight with projectile points. It was determined by researchers that the majority of these points were used in high velocity projectile hunting. It was not, however, possible to differentiate between bow and spear use based solely on their damage.1 A compelling case, however, can be made for the bow based on the hunting environment and the type of game harvested. The game targeted were prime-age monkeys and squirrels.2 It is unlikely that spears or darts would have been successful in striking one of these very quick and agile animals because the hunter’s arm, while in the act of throwing, would have sent a visual alarm. In addition, an arrow travels roughly twice as fast as a dart and therefore has a flatter trajectory.3, 4 This is an obvious advantage when hunting in a dense rainforest. And more importantly, the arrow can be shot from concealment.
Microscopic analyses of this ~48,000 year old bone point (shown from two sides) indicate it was likely an arrowhead.
(Photo: Courtesy of Dr. Michelle Langley, Griffith University in Brisbane.)
On the lower coast of Italy early evidence of the Migration has been found. It arrived some 45,000 years ago. The technology the Migrants brought with them has undeniable similarities to far older South and East African toolkits. For example there is a rock shelter in Tanzania, dated between 57 and 49 thousand years ago, with tools closely related to the Italian toolkit (this rock shelter is located in the heartland of today's Hadza).1 There is also the Sibudu Cave in South Africa. The small blades (“backed pieces”) in the Italian toolkit are closely patterned after the 64,000 year old Sibudu arrowheads (see following drawings). Furthermore some of the Italian blades show evidence of high velocity impact damage consistent with damage found in the Sibudu Cave projectiles.2, 3
45,000 year old blades from Grotta del Cavallo, Italy.
(Drawing: Courtesy of Dr.Adriana Moroni, University of Siena.)
64,000 year old Sibudu Cave arrowheads.
(Drawing: Courtesy of Dr. Lyn Wadley, University of Witwatersrand.)
Evidence is so far lacking that this toolkit ever passed through the Near East.4 Perhaps, instead, it came by sea. If so, this should not be surprising. Some 5,000 years earlier there was a purposeful and successful voyage by "Eastern" Migrants to the western coast of Australia/New Guinea.5
The first moderns to enter Japan did so around 38,000 years ago. There are numerous sites that date from this period that contain small blades of similar size to the African and Italian blades although they are shaped differently. Replicas of these small trapezoids were made and experiments were conducted. The damage observed in some of the ancient lithics could only be reproduced when the replicas were shot from a bow. Based on the early age of these sites and the widespread presence of these blades the researchers concluded that the early migrants had the bow-and-arrow in their possession when they entered Japan.1
On Timor Island a partial ~35,000 year old bone projectile point was found. Only the side notched base of this point remained. The section of the point that extended beyond the base was missing, perhaps broken by impact. The base was likely designed to be hafted in such a manner that the notched sides extended beyond the diameter of the shaft. Resin and tough cordage made from animal or plant fiber would have been used to secure the base to the shaft.1 Based on the width of the break and the distance between the notches the diameter of the shaft would have been 8 to 9 mm. This is consistent with the size of modern wooden arrow shafts. It is also consistent with the diameter of the reed shafts used by the San.
Some North American arrowheads have a single notch on each side. In order to mount this type of arrowhead an insert deeper than the distance from the bottom of the base to the top of the notches is cut into the solid head of the shaft. This is time consuming with flint tools.2 By North American standards the cut required for the Timor point would have been bigger than most.
If, however, the Timor point was installed in a reed shaft, which is hollow, and if the missing end of the blade was barbed, this would suggest a possible use for this unusual point. It would have been an arrowhead used for bow fishing. It would have been an arrowhead that required a very firm attachment to the shaft.
Shown are two different ways the projectile base may have been hafted and how its missing end was perhaps shaped.3
(Drawing: Courtesy of Dr. Sue O’Connor, Australian National University.)
In north western Russia some 700 miles north and east of Moscow is an Early Upper Paleolithic site (Garchi I) that dates to around 29,000 years. Found at this site were numerous bifacial triangular projectiles.1, 2
Ancient Russian bifacial triangular projectiles
(Drawings: Courtesy of Dr. Pavel Yurievich Pavlov, Institute of Language, Literature and History, Komi Science Center, Ural Branch, Russian Academy of Sciences.)
Arrowheads of similar size and shape have been found throughout North America from the Bering Sea and Canadian Arctic to the Pacific Northwest, Middle Atlantic, Western States and Northern Mexico. Some of these North American arrowheads are 200 years old, some over 10,000 years old.3
Shown next, in approximate scale, are two of the 18 ancient Russian projectiles alongside photos of a ~13,500 year old Texas arrowhead 4 and a ~1100 - 200 year old arrowhead from the Columbia River Basin.
