Prehistoric Armament

The concept of armament during the Préhistoire gathers as well the Arme S intended for the Chasse as with the Guerre. The question of the weapons specific to the war is delicate because the date of appearance of the Guerre during humanity makes the subject of debate. The armament evolves/moves largely according to the principal prehistoric periods considered: Paleolithic, Mesolithic, Neolithic, Bronze Age, Age of iron.

Paleolithic

The use of Lance S and spears out of wooden worked for hunting is attested with the Paléolithique inferior (Clacton-one-Sea, England) and with the Paléolithique means (Lehringen and Schöningen, Germany). At Lehringen (Lower Saxony) was put at the day a fragment of spear in yew driven in the thorax of an elephant (approx. 125.000 years BP). In the same site, glares Levallois having been used were discovered to cut out skin and meat. In Schöningen, spears out of wooden going back to approximately 40.000 years were discovered in a Tourbière.

The use of Sagaie S in bone or wood of cervidé, Propellent S and Harpon S is attested starting from the Paléolithique superior. For some, the small size of certain points of Gravette (Gravettien) or certain points with notch (Solutréen) would show that the arc has existed for at least 20.000 years.

Mesolithic Épipaléolithique and

The use of the arc and the arrow, sometimes provided with microlithic reinforcements , is attested by various discoveries of which an arrow going back to - 10.800 years (Stellmoor, Germany of North).

Neolithic

The appearance of the Storage of food and the constitution of reserves caused indirect a beginning of hierarchisation of the company, with the progressive installation of a class of warriors to protect the fields and the reserves from the covetousness of the close groups. The higher level of hypogean of Roaix (Vaucluse), gone back to 2.090 + 140 av. J. - C., delivered the overlapping skeletons of forty individuals, men, women or new-born babies, of which some presented arrowheads driven in the bones of the basin or in the middle of the thorax: it is about the one of the oldest evidence of collective burial following a massacre and one of the first testimonys of Guerre , .

The use of weapons initially planned for the Agriculture within the framework of conflicts can be considered.

Bronze Age

The sword makes its appearance towards - 2.000 years.

Age of iron

List prehistoric weapons

  • Arc and arrow S

  • Lance

  • Axe S of combat: as of the Paleolithic inferior, certain stone tools cut such as the Double-side S and the Hachereau X were probably used fixed for the work of wood. The technique of the Polissage is used as of the Paléolithique superior for the work of the animal hard matters (Os, wood, Ivoire) but also, more rarely, of the stone, in particular with the Japan. It is also attested punctually in companies of hunters-gatherers, as in the Mesolithic of the Russian plain or at the Aborigènes of Australia.

    Toutefois the generalization of polishing intervenes only with the Neolithic with the development of work of grubbing related to agriculture. This technique indeed makes it possible to obtain Hache S and Herminette S with the regular and very resistant edges, which will be able to slice fibers of wood without esquiller. It is important to stress that polishing is only the last stage of the manufacture of the blade of axe and that it generally intervenes after a Façonnage bifacial.

    La axe was then used as a weapon of close combat. More difficult to handle than a sword because of the weight and the lack of balance (indeed, a sword is somewhat balanced by its pommel), the axe allows however strike more powerful. The francisque S were axes comprising a double edge sometimes. The axes could also be launched but they were in this case smaller and lighter.

  • Bola

Internal bonds

References

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