When I first began my PhD, I set out to understand early wooden weapons—not just what they looked like, but what they could do. Wooden spears rarely survive in the archaeological record, and discoveries of them have challenged our assumptions about the technological and hunting abilities of early humans. When I started my research journey,ContinueContinue reading “Rethinking Evidence for Early Wooden Weapons at Boxgrove”
Tag Archives: Palaeolithic
Skills Shortage! Or The Replicator’s Conceit
Experimental archaeology has run as a thread throughout my postgraduate studies, and I’ve conducted a number of different types of experiments on Pleistocene hunting weapons. Something that was clear early on in designing my experiments is that we have a present-day skills shortage in terms of how humans used early hunting spears. Once upon aContinueContinue reading “Skills Shortage! Or The Replicator’s Conceit”
What’s in a name? Defining prehistoric weaponry
I have researched Palaeolithic weapons for almost 10 years and (miraculously) I still love writing and talking about them. I’ve written up some basics below on prehistoric weaponry, including some definitions, classifications, and a few archaeological ‘firsts’. But I want to think very briefly first why we need these definitions and classifications. We use definitionsContinueContinue reading “What’s in a name? Defining prehistoric weaponry”
Sticks and Stones 