Neolithic Bowhunting May Have Caused Social Cohesion in Ancient Human Societies

Bowhunting may just have caused humans to work together. Scientists have taken a closer look at bowhunting during the Neolithic period and have found that it may have been one of the pillars of unity as a group of primitive human societies.

In this case, the researchers studied a Neolithic site in Girona, Spain. They found three yew bows that have an estimated age between 7,400 and 7,200 years old, which is the oldest of their kind found in Europe so far. The bows are relatively small, and the one that was fully recovered has a length of about 43 inches.

"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," said Xavier Terradas, one of the researchers, in a news release. "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."

In fact, prestige was linked to the type of animal hunted in some cases. At other times, it had more to do with the distribution of the prey than the capture of the animal itself.

"As a collective resource, larger preys may have played an important role, even in those cases when they constituted a punctual or sporadic resource," said Raquel Pique, one of the researchers.

The findings indicate that hunting was a social activity. Because nutrition wasn't the main aim of developing these bows, it's apparently that it became more of a societal symbol.

The findings are published in the Journal of Archaeological Science.

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