European Neanderthal stone hunting weapons reveal complex behaviour long before the appearance of modern humans

On the Entity and Antiquity of the Aurignacian at Willendorf (Austria): Implications for Modern Human Emergence in Europe

“…1: Oase; 2: Cavallo; 3: Vindija; 4: Willendorf; 5: Geissenklösterle; 6: La Quina; 7: Brassempouy; 8: Kent's Cavern Gravette point, which defines the subsequent Gravettian. The functional interpretation of these typological points as actual projectile tips is supported by use-wear analysis and the presence of diagnostic impact fractures (e.g., for the Mousterian points, Villa et al 2009, Lazuén 2012and Zilhão et al 2017, for the Jerzmanovician points, Jacobi 1990), even though wear indicative of other uses (e.g., as knives) has also been reported.…”

Levallois points and triangular flakes during the Middle Palaeolithic in northwestern Europe: Considerations on the status of these pieces in the Neanderthal hunting toolkit in northern France

“…The point was considered for a long time as an anecdotal element of the Neanderthal toolkit in Europe, but recent studies show that this object had special status among these populations (Knecht, 1997;Soressi and Locht, 2010;Goval, 2012;Lazuen, 2012). Numerous studies, most of which were conducted in the Near East and in Africa, demonstrate the use of points and triangular flakes as projectile points (Shea, 1988(Shea, , 2003(Shea, , 2006Plisson and Beyries, 1998;Villa and Lenoir, 2006;Wilkins et al, 2012), but in Europe, points and triangular flakes have been poorly studied.…”

Identifying Weapon Delivery Systems Using Macrofracture Analysis and Fracture Propagation Velocity: A Controlled Experiment

“…Systematic investigations of macroscopic damage, also known as "diagnostic impact fractures" (DIFs, Lombard 2005) have a long history, with a particularly active period in the 1980s (e.g., Witthoft 1968;Ahler and McMillan 1976;Frison et al 1976;Barton and Bergman 1982;Huckell 1982;Bergman and Newcomer 1983;Fischer et al 1984;Odell and Cowan 1986;Geneste and Plisson 1989;Plisson and Beyries 1998). The last decade has seen a renewed interest in experimentation (e.g., Shea et al 2001;Lombard et al 2004;Pargeter 2007Pargeter , 2011Lombard and Pargeter 2008;Sisk and Shea 2009;Schoville 2010), as well as searching the archaeological record for evidence of different weapon types (Sano 2009;Villa et al 2009a, b;Lombard 2011;Rots et al 2011;e.g., Brown et al 2012;Lazuén 2012;Wilkins et al 2012). Including the indirect evidence, the picture of unilinear evolution of weapon technologies appears to contain a few surprises.…”