The use of weapons by human beings occurred at the same time as the existence of human beings themselves. In fact, according to the definition of “weapon” and according to the conception that we want to give it, they existed even before our ancestors. According to the Royal Spanish Academy, “weapon” is an “instrument, means or machine intended to attack or defend oneself”. Therefore, we could guess that there were apes before humans capable of throwing stones or sticks to attack . Of course, they were the first weapons of man for sure. But we want to go a little further.
the first handyman
The first human, the first species of the genus Homo discovered to date, is Homo habilis . It barely rose more than a meter from the ground, but this ancestor is credited with making the first stone tools . The oldest fossil remains of Homo habilis are over 2 million years old. Therefore, we would have to refer to this chronology when talking about when the human being began to manufacture weapons. But we want to go a little further.
A team of researchers found carved stones between 2.6 and 2.5 million years old in Ethiopia. This finding opened a debate: either we advance the chronology for Homo habilis , or this was not the first species to make tools. We are talking about roughly carved stones, obviously, but they are the beginning of the first instruments that could also be used as weapons. These ancient stones were found not far from where Lucy, the most famous specimen of Australopithecus , appeared. Were these hominids able to make weapons?
Australopithecus is the genus that ceases to be a monkey, but does not become human either. It is halfway there and that is why it occupies a prominent place in the investigation of human evolution. In 1950, Raymon Dart found in South Africa a deposit full of teeth, bones, antlers of gazelles and antelopes and defined it as an arsenal of australopithecines . His idea was that those hominids already had their own hiding place with weapons, which they would use both for hunting and for fighting other groups. A few years later it was shown that those remains had been accumulated by carnivores, who came there with their prey. However, it is clear that violence has been present in human beings since our origins. But we want to go a little further.
Let’s go in search of real weapons, not instruments that could also be used to attack. When did the human being make a tool for the sole purpose of attacking?
What was the first weapon created by man?
The spear is possibly the oldest human weapon. We could go back to the sharp stick and get lost in those primal tools again. But we want to go a little further and rely on some certainty. We agree that the spear was designed from the beginning to attack animals and other hominid species. The relationship between hunting and war has been evident in all ancient cultures. Just take a look at classical mythology or the original Olympics events.
Cave paintings have left us with direct evidence of the use of spears, arrows and bows for a long time. We have one of the earliest examples in the Lascaux cave, chronologically framed between 17,000 and 12,000 years ago. These are very recent dates for the find that took place in Schoningen, Germany. In 1995, three wooden spears about two meters long were found here and were dated to be 400,000 years old . It should be noted that these spears were not dated by radiometry, so we are before an estimate that needs a more specific chronological confirmation. The archaeological context of these spears tells us that they were weapons used to hunt horses. But we want to go a little further.
the first murder
When do we have the first evidence of the use of weapons to attack other humans? In Atapuerca, a 230,000-year-old skull appeared with two identical fractures on the forehead, for which the researchers determined that they were made by a blunt object that ended the life of the individual. We are facing one of the first documented murders in history .
As you will see, difficult questions do not have easy answers. About when we started making weapons, depending on what point of view you want to give it, we can go back to almost 3 million years ago, or if we choose to discard tools with functions other than attack, we would come back to 400,000 years ago. As always in the investigation of the past, we depend on new discoveries and studies that allow us to go a little further in knowledge .
References:
Bermúdez de Castro, JM 2021. Gods and beggars. The great odyssey of human evolution. Criticism.
Dohrenwend, R. 2007. The Spear. An effective weapon since ancient times. Asian Martial Arts Review 2, 2, 8-35. ISSN: 1885-8643.
Roche, H. 1999. Early hominid stone tool production and technical skill 2.34 Myr ago in West Turkana, Kenya. Nature 399, 57-60. DOI: 10.1038/19959.
Sala, N. et al. 2022. Taphonomic-forensic analysis of the hominin skulls from the Sima de los Huesos. The Anatomical Record. DOI: 10.1002/ar.24883.
Thieme, H. 1997. Lower Palaeolithic hunting spears from Germany. Nature 385, 807-810. DOI: 10.1038/385807a0.
