Barbed bone harpoon
Arpón de hueso con barbas
- Date
- c. 90 ka · confidence low
- Place
- Katanda, Semliki River, Democratic Republic of the Congo
- Credited to
- Homo sapiens
- Field
- Tools
⚠️ Disputed: the sources disagree.
What it is
Barbed bone points, associated with the remains of large catfish. They extend hunting into the aquatic environment and predate Magdalenian harpoons by 50,000 years.
The dating of Katanda (90–80 ka) has been questioned for its anomaly relative to the rest of the African record; European harpoons appear in the Magdalenian (c. 17 ka).
What it led to
- Fishing of large fish and aquatic mammals: a new protein source
- Formal working of bone as a precision material
- Fishing calendars based on seasonal spawning
Built on
- Bone tools for termite foragingc. 1.5 Ma
- Hafting of stone pointsc. 500 ka
- Wooden spear (Schöningen)c. 300 ka
- Bone awls and points of Blombosc. 75 ka
- Wooden spear (Schöningen)
- Hafting of stone points
Made possible
- Shell fishhookc. 23 ka
- Fishing net with sinkersc. 21 ka
- Toggling harpoonc. 5500 BCE
- Fishing net with sinkers