The hoplite phalanx dominated warfare among the Greek City States from the 7th into the 4th century BCE. The key to this formation was the hoplite, who was equipped with a large, circular, bronze-faced shield ( aspis) and a 7–9 ft (2.1–2.7 m) spear with an iron head and bronze butt-spike ( doru). In the 7th century BCE, the Greeks evolved a new close-order infantry formation, the phalanx. It has been suggested that two styles of combat are being described an early style, with thrusting spears, dating to the Mycenaean period in which the Iliad is set, and, anachronistically, a later style, with throwing spears, from Homer's own Archaic period. The use of both a single thrusting spear and two throwing spears are mentioned. The spear is the main weapon of the warriors of Homer's Iliad. Military Īthenian warrior wielding a spear in battle 15,000–9500 BCE), spear-throwers similar to the later atlatl were in use.

During this period, a clear difference remained between spears designed to be thrown and those designed to be used in hand-to-hand combat. These stone heads could be fixed to the spear shaft by gum or resin or by bindings made of animal sinew, leather strips or vegetable matter. Neanderthals were constructing stone spear heads from as early as 300,000 BP, and by 250,000 years ago, wooden spears were made with fire-hardened points.įrom circa 200,000 BCE onwards, Middle Paleolithic humans began to make complex stone blades with flaked edges which were used as spear heads. Wood does not preserve well, however, and Craig Stanford, a primatologist and professor of anthropology at the University of Southern California, has suggested that the discovery of spear use by chimpanzees means that early humans may have used wooden spears before this. Hunting spear and knife, from Mesa Verde National ParkĪrchaeological evidence found in present-day Germany documents that wooden spears have been used for hunting since at least 400,000 years ago, and a 2012 study from the site of Kathu Pan in South Africa suggests that hominids, possibly Homo heidelbergensis, may have developed the technology of hafted stone-tipped spears in Africa about 500,000 years ago. They then used the weapons to hunt galagos sleeping in hollows. Chimpanzees near Kédougou, Senegal have been observed to create spears by breaking straight limbs off trees, stripping them of their bark and side branches, and sharpening one end with their teeth. It is also practiced by the western chimpanzee.

Spear manufacture and use is not confined to humans.

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It was used in virtually every conflict up until the modern era, where even then it continues on in the form of the fixed bayonet on a long gun, and is probably the most commonly used weapon in history.

As a weapon, it may be wielded with either one or two hands. Along with the club, knife, and axe, it is one of the earliest and most important tools developed by early humans. The spear has been used throughout human history both as a hunting and fishing tool and as a weapon. Spears can be divided into two broad categories: those designed for thrusting as a melee weapon and those designed for throwing as a ranged weapon (usually referred to as javelins or darts). The word spear comes from the Old English spere, from the Proto-Germanic speri, from a Proto-Indo-European root *sper- 'spear, pole'. The heads of fishing spears usually feature barbs or serrated edges. The most common design for hunting or combat spears since ancient times has incorporated a metal spearhead shaped like a triangle, lozenge, or leaf. The head may be simply the sharpened end of the shaft itself, as is the case with fire hardened spears, or it may be made of a more durable material fastened to the shaft, such as bone, flint, obsidian, iron, steel, or bronze. Spear-armed hoplite from Greco-Persian WarsĪ spear is a pole weapon consisting of a shaft, usually of wood, with a pointed head.

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