• RicoBerto@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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    10 months ago

    Pikes were used much the same way right? Surprised I never put the two together, ancient humans weren’t stupid so of course they’d realize that was a better way of causing harm than just throwing it. Not to mention their use of leverage in weapons like the Atlatl. No clue on the timespan of these things but I do find this stuff interesting.

    • Transporter Room 3@startrek.websiteBanned
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      10 months ago

      I’m sure so much of our history is more or less completely unknowable simply because the remains all degraded quickly.

      How many things made out of wood that simply rotted away, or burned or any one of a thousand things.

      Stone tools were a game changer in every sense.

        • abigscaryhobo@lemmy.world
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          10 months ago

          Honest answer, usually animal sinew, or certain grasses could be used as well. The nice thing with string, once it was figured out was you could make as much as you could, and make it as long as you wanted.

          • Peppycito@sh.itjust.works
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            10 months ago

            I totally count sinew as string. That probably led to plant string. Think about really fine string, or thread, and think about how many miles of it you carry around on you every day. It’s crazy how taken for granted it is!

        • Transporter Room 3@startrek.websiteBanned
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          10 months ago

          How do you think they got the stone on the end of a stick

          For a long time, they didn’t.

          Hand stone tools predate everything except sharpened sticks as spears.

          Without the Olduvai tools, we have no civilization.

  • Phenomephrene@thebrainbin.org
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    10 months ago

    I always pictured mammoths being more docile: disinclined to charge. Didn’t realize they could be more of a wooly bully.

  • Track_Shovel@slrpnk.net
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    10 months ago

    I would be surprised if they didn’t use pitfall traps with spikes. That’s how I would take down an elephant

    • Tiptopit@feddit.org
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      10 months ago

      This is probably how you hunt nearly everything which is faster than you as long as you don’t have the means to kill it with one shot.

      • RavindraNemandi@ttrpg.network
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        10 months ago

        You might be right, but i think it also has to do with the charging behavior of those animals. The plant a spear strat seems less effective if your prey is better able to change directions.

        • Tiptopit@feddit.org
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          10 months ago

          Yes, but for prey which changes directions the tactics are not so different. You work as a group, drive them to a cliff and this is their end.