This interdisciplinary project looks at how the earliest weapons were used. Plain wooden spears have been found in Europe, with the earliest example dating to around 400,000 years. Though found alongside butchered animals it's unclear if they were designed as thrusted or thrown hunting spears or for self-defence against big cats. I will test replicas in a ballistics lab to evaluate effectiveness as hand-thrown hunting spears, helping understand key questions about behaviors in human evolution.