Scientists have discovered our ancestors began hunting with stone-tipped spears 500,000 years ago - with the help of a special crossbow and a dead springbok, the Daily Mail reported.
Until recently, it was thought attaching a stone tip to a spear - known as 'hafting' - started about 300,000 years ago.
However, by comparing the wear visible on 500,000-year-old stone points found in South Africa with modern experimental points fired by a specially calibrated crossbow at a springbok carcass, scientists proved they had been used as spear tips for hunting.
'Hafting' was an important technological advance that made it possible to handle or throw sharp points with much more power and control.
Lead author Jayne Wilkins from the Department of Anthropology at the University of Toronto in Canada, said the research suggested stone-tipped spears could have been in use before the divergence of early humans and Neanderthals.
"This changes the way we think about early human adaptations and capacities before the origin of our own species," she said.
"Although both Neanderthals and humans used stone-tipped spears, this is the first evidence that the technology originated prior to or near the divergence of these two species," she added.
Attaching stone points to spears was an important advance in hunting weaponry for early humans. Hafted tools require more effort and planning to manufacture, but a sharp stone point on the end of a spear can increase its killing power.
The new study - which examined stone points from the South African archaeological site of Kathu Pan 1- shows that they were also used in the early Middle Pleistocene, a period associated with Homo heidelbergensis, the last common ancestor of Neanderthals, and modern humans.
Wilkins and colleagues from Arizona State University and the University of Cape Town, compared the ancient stone points to experimental points which they hafted to wooden dowels using Acacia resin and sinew before thrusting them into a springbok with a mounted crossbow.
The stone points exhibit certain types of breaks that occur more commonly when they are used to tip spears compared to other uses.
"The archaeological points have damage that is very similar to replica spear points used in our spearing experiment," Wilkins said.
This type of damage is not easily created through other processes, she added.
The findings were published in the journal Science.
