Prehistoric Human Evolution: How Changes in Prey Size Shaped the Development of Hunting Weapons

A recent investigation led by Dr. Miki Ben-Dor and Professor Ran Barkai from the Sonia and Marco Nadler Institute of Archaeology at Tel Aviv University (TAU) has uncovered that the extinction of large prey, which constituted a crucial part of early human nutrition, prompted our ancestors to refine their hunting tools.

This adaptation drove evolutionary changes. The research, titled "The Evolution of Paleolithic Hunting Weapons: A Response to Declining Prey Size" published in the journal Quaternary, suggests that the adaptation drove evolutionary changes not only in hunting weapons but also in human culture and philosophy.

Prey Size Correlated With Hunting Weapons of Prehistoric Humans

The study focused on nine prehistoric sites in South Africa, East Africa, Spain, and France, dating back approximately 300,000 years during the transition from the Lower to the Middle Stone Age, coinciding with the emergence of Neanderthals and Homo Sapiens.

These early archaeological sites primarily contained animal bones and stone tools used for hunting and processing prey, allowing insights into the species hunted by humans during that time.

The research aimed to identify a correlation between the adoption of stone-tipped spears and prey size. It specifically examined the introduction of the Levallois technique, a sophisticated stone-knapping method indicative of cognitive advancement.

Unlike earlier techniques, this method involved preparing a core of high-quality stone and then crafting a pointed tool with a single stroke, requiring the artisan to envision the final product in advance.

The findings consistently demonstrated that at all examined sites, the appearance of stone tips created using the Levallois technique coincided with a relative decrease in the abundance of large prey bones. This suggests a correlation between the development of advanced hunting tools and the shift towards hunting smaller prey.

Evolution of Hunting Weapons

The Levallois technique, distinct from earlier methods, involves preparing a high-quality stone core and creating a pointed tool with one stroke, requiring the craftsperson to envision the final result beforehand. The study consistently revealed that stone tips made using the Levallois technology coincided with a decrease in large prey bones at all examined sites.

Dr. Ben-Dor notes that contemporary hunter-gatherer studies suggest that wooden spears suffice for hunting large prey like elephants, where mobility limitation and bleeding are key tactics. However, medium-sized animals like deer are harder to trap, and a stone-tipped spear can inflict a more substantial wound, slowing down the prey and increasing the hunter's chances of retrieval.

While the evolution of hunting weapons and its connection to enhanced human cognition and skills have long been recognized, a unified hypothesis explaining these changes in the context of environmental shifts was lacking. The TAU researchers aimed to address this gap.

Over the past decade, researchers sought a unified explanation for key aspects of prehistoric human cultural and biological evolution. Their excavations at the Qesem Cave site led them to conclude that the disappearance of elephants, a significant dietary component for a million years, around 300,000 years ago resulted from overhunting and climate change.

With the decline of large prey, humans adapted to obtaining the same caloric intake from smaller animals, ultimately leading to transition to agriculture.

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