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Concept
Spear
Summary
A spear is a pole weapon consisting of a shaft, usually of wood, with a pointed head. The head may be simply the sharpened end of the shaft itself, as is the case with fire hardened spears, or it may be made of a more durable material fastened to the shaft, such as bone, flint, obsidian, copper, bronze, iron, or steel. The most common design for hunting and/or warfare, since ancient times has incorporated a metal spearhead shaped like a triangle, lozenge, or leaf. The heads of fishing spears usually feature multiple sharp points, with or without barbs.
The word spear comes from the Old English spere, from the Proto-Germanic speri, from a Proto-Indo-European root *sper- "spear, pole".
Spears can be divided into two broad categories: those designed for thrusting as a melee weapon (usually referred to as lances or pikes) and those designed for throwing as a ranged weapon (usually referred to as darts or javelins).
The spear has been used throughout human history as a tool (hunting and fishing) and as a weapon. Along with the club, knife, and axe, it is one of the earliest and widespread tools ever developed by early humans. As a weapon, it may be wielded with either one or two hands. It was used in virtually every conflict up until the modern era, where even to this day, it lives on in the form of a bayonet fixed onto the muzzle of a long gun.
Spear manufacture and use is not confined to humans. It is also practiced by the western chimpanzee. Chimpanzees near Kédougou, Senegal have been observed to create spears by breaking straight limbs off trees, stripping them of their bark and side branches, and sharpening one end with their teeth. They then used the weapons to hunt galagos sleeping in hollows.
The Clacton Spear found in England and the Schöningen spears found in present-day Germany documents that wooden spears have been used for hunting since at least 400,000 years ago. A 2012 study from the site of Kathu Pan in South Africa suggests that hominids, possibly Homo heidelbergensis, may have developed the technology of hafted stone-tipped spears in Africa about 500,000 years ago.
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