Tools & manufacturing · c. 66,000 years ago

Bow and arrow

Stored elastic energy launches a projectile beyond throwing range.

Stone arrow tips with impact damage and glue residue from Sibudu Cave, South Africa, date to about 64,000 years ago. The bow let hunters strike safely from distance and was the first machine to store energy.

See it in the living tree Wikipedia

Arcs above join it to what it stood on, arcs below to what it led to. The bar places this stretch on the tree's whole timeline.

What it built on 2

Microliths 71k BCE
Hafting 500k BCE

What it led to 1

Lathe 1300 BCE

Related measurements

The dashed line marks when it first worked.

World population over a million years Latest: 6.27k million people (2000) Source: DeLong 1998, table 'Total World Population' (Kremer series); Kremer 1993, Population Growth and Technological Change: One Million B.C. to 1990, QJE 108(3)