DAVIS, CALIFORNIA—According to a statement released by the University of California, Davis, analysis of more than 1,100 projectile points from the Lake Titicaca Basin suggests that archery developed in the Andes Mountains some 5,000 years ago, or about 2,000 years earlier than previously thought. Luis Flores-Blanco of UC Davis, Lucero Cuellar of the National University of San Marcos, Mark Aldenderfer of the University of California, Merced, and their colleagues examined the stone points, which had been made over a period of about 10,000 years. They found that the older points were larger. Then, about 5,000 years ago, the points became significantly smaller. The researchers suggest that this shift reflects a change from a preference for spear-throwing to the use of bows and arrows. Flores-Blanco explained that this shift in technology emerged at about the same time as obsidian exchange networks expanded and people began to live in larger settlements. “Bow-and-arrow technology could have maintained and ensured adherence to emerging social norms that were crucial,” he suggested. Read the original scholarly article about this research in Quaternary International. For more, go to "Weapons of the Ancient World."
