Minimalist wrote:R/S - a "spear" is effectively a stick. Unless it has a stone head, or is carefully or accidentally preserved, it is not going to last long. Atlatls's and arrows are essentially smaller sticks.
I don't get it, Min. What's your point? I don't think I contested or denied the 'survivability' – or rather the lack of it – of wooden weapons. I didn't even raise that issue at all!
My point was that I wouldn't be surprised to find they may have used only one weapon – like the Neandertals did, as is generally assumed – not because they were stupid (I'm not saying they were or weren't), but because 1) they didn't have the luxury of choice, and 2) they didn't have the benefit of knowledge, and 3) they didn't have the convenience of experience.
Nothing to do with the 'latency', or lack of it, of wooden implements.
A century ago all cars were black. Simply because people hadn't caught on yet that they could be yellow, blue, or red too. Nothing to do with presumed stupidity, but everything with the
then lack of choice, lack of knowledge (of the possibilities), and lack of experience.
40 years ago computers were huge, beige, steel cabinets occupying a class room. Today they fit in the palm of your hand, have every color under the sun – and then some, and are made of finely worked aluminium, exotic plastics and glass types, or even of carbon fiber.
They weren't stupid, 40 years ago. They simply didn't know any better yet, nor had the technological means developed yet.