Stone age hunters used human bone spears, arrowheads & barbed points as 'weaponry': Report

Primitive men from the stone age in northern Europe used human bones as the choice of their weaponry for hunting, according to new research published in the Journal of Archaeological Science on December 22. The spear factors or arrowheads and barbed points retrieved by the scientists in the Netherlands that dated between 5300 and 7500 BC were designed mostly with the human bone due to the ‘symbolic significance’. The primitive hunters wanted to channel the characteristic traits and expertise from the weaponry bone of the skilled hunter or bones of the deer and antlers, which they believed would invoke gallantry in the hunter. 

According to the scientists, the Stone Age hunter-gatherers were not more opportunistic but instead seemed to be strategic in nature. They aimed to achieve prowess, elegance, and the skills of the expert hunter and speed of the animal such as the red deer. “With human bone, it seems to be linked to the identity of the individual,” the lead author of the study archaeologist Johannes Dekker of Leiden University said in the report. At least nine barbed bone points obtained by a team of scientists were subjected to a detailed visual analysis to determine which species the bones used to design weaponry came from. 

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[Scientists studied the projectile weapons made by  Mesolithic hunters in Northern Europe. Credit: Twitter/@thandojo]

[Stone age hunters used barbed points, arrowheads and bones of great hunters as weapons. Credit: twitter/@WheresAndrew]

[Museum of Anthropology in Mexico City shows stone age hunters using the stone-age tools. Credit: Twitter/@SciencePsychic]

Scientists determine 'protein composition'

Using advanced techniques such as mass spectrometry, scientists were able to determine and study the protein composition of the bones. It was found that while two of the total weaponry were made using antlers of red deer, seven were designed out of human bones. The primitive hunting equipment washed ashore in Doggerland, a land now submerged in the North Sea due to rising sea levels between Great Britain and mainland Europe.

Geologists believe that the bones of a skilled hunter may have been used with an aim to enhance the strength and target. However, many such items were also used as ceremonial items. “They have been resharpened. They show use-wear,” according to the scientists. About 9000 years ago, the ‘Dogger archipelago’ was submerged under the gigantic Storegga tsunami of 6100 BC. But the store age period tools, weapons, and other artifacts have frequently washed up to provide scientists new insight about the primitive styles of living. 

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