Timeline: Weapons technology
Please note, many of the technologies are difficult to attribute, and historical dates are often approximate.
400,000 BC
The earliest evidence of humans using spears, in a part of Germany now near Schöningen (Nature, DOI: 10.1038/385807a0).
However, one population of modern chimpanzees in Senegal uses spears to hunt bushbabiesMovie Camera, suggesting the technology may have been used by our most primitive ancestors.
40,000 to 25,000 BC
The atlatl, sometimes dubbed the Stone Age Kalashnikov, throws a flexible dart that can kill a deer at 40 metres. Developed in northern Africa, it spreads throughout the world, being later replaced by the bow and arrow.....
Rest here:
http://www.newscientist.com/article/...echnology.html