BARCELONA, SPAIN—A study of hunting implements unearthed at La Draga, which included the three wooden bows discovered in 2012, suggests that hunting was a social activity for the early farmers who lived there. La Draga is an early Neolithic site located on the shores of Lake Bayoles in Catalonia, Spain. A portion of the site is now underwater, and it has yielded well-preserved artifacts made of organic materials, including the 7,000-year-old yew bows. “Comparing the scarce remains of wild animals and the abundant hunting gear found at the site, we conclude that nutrition was not the main aim of developing hunting objects. Neolithic archery could have had a significant community and social role, as well as providing social prestige to physical activity and individuals involved in it,” said researcher Xavier Terradas of the Milá I Fontanals Institution. The people of La Draga may have also awarded prestige according to the type of animal that was killed and how it was distributed. “As a collective resource, larger preys may have played an important role, even in those cases when they constituted a punctual or sporadic resource,” added Raquel Piqué of the University of Barcelona. For more, see "How Bow & Arrow Technology Changed the World."
