The bow and arrow
Stored energy released on demand lets a hunter kill at distance without being seen.
- When
- —
- Duration
- 4 thousand years
- Known to
- ± 4 thousand years
- Era
- Late Pleistocene, Quaternary
Small stone segments from Sibudu Cave in South Africa, around 64,000 years old, carry impact damage and traces of adhesive consistent with use as arrow tips, with further evidence from Border Cave. The bow is a machine: it accumulates muscular work over a second and releases it in milliseconds. It also transforms hunting from a close-range, high-risk activity into a distance one, and it eventually transforms warfare in the same way.