Editing Military technology (section)

===Ancient technology===
The first use of stone tools may have begun during the [[Paleolithic]] Period. The earliest stone tools are from the site of Lomekwi, Turkana, dating from 3.3&nbsp;million years ago. Stone tools diversified through the [[Pleistocene]] Period, which ended ~12,000 years ago.<ref name=primitive>{{cite book|last1=Wescott|first1=David|title=Primitive Technology: A Book of Earth Skills|date=1999|publisher=Society of Primitive Technology, Gibbs Smith|location=Layton, UT|isbn=978-0-87905-911-8|page=60}}</ref>
The earliest evidence of warfare between two groups is recorded at the site of [[Nataruk]] in Turkana, Kenya, where human skeletons with major traumatic injuries to the head, neck, ribs, knees and hands, including an embedded obsidian bladelet on a skull, are evidence of inter-group conflict between groups of nomadic hunter-gatherers 10,000 years ago.<ref>{{Cite journal|title = Inter-group violence among early Holocene hunter-gatherers of West Turkana, Kenya|journal = Nature|pages = 394–398|volume = 529|issue = 7586|doi = 10.1038/nature16477|first1 = M. Mirazón|last1 = Lahr|first2 = F.|last2 = Rivera|first3 = R. K.|last3 = Power|first4 = A.|last4 = Mounier|first5 = B.|last5 = Copsey|first6 = F.|last6 = Crivellaro|first7 = J. E.|last7 = Edung|first8 = J. M. Maillo|last8 = Fernandez|first9 = C.|last9 = Kiarie|pmid=26791728|year=2016|url = https://www.repository.cam.ac.uk/handle/1810/253726|bibcode = 2016Natur.529..394L|s2cid = 4462435}}</ref>

Humans entered the [[Bronze Age]] as they learned to smelt copper into an alloy with tin to make weapons. In Asia where copper-tin ores are rare, this development was delayed until trading in bronze began in the third millennium [[BCE]]. In the Middle East and Southern European regions, the Bronze Age follows the [[Neolithic]] period, but in other parts of the world, the [[Copper Age]] is a transition from Neolithic to the Bronze Age. Although the Iron Age generally follows the Bronze Age, in some areas the [[Iron Age]] intrudes directly on the Neolithic from outside the region, with the exception of Sub-Saharan Africa where it was developed independently.<ref>[http://portal.unesco.org/en/ev.php-URL_ID=3432&URL_DO=DO_PRINTPAGE&URL_SECTION=201.html Iron In Africa: Revising The History : Unesco]. UNESCO. Retrieved 20 November 2014.</ref>

The first large-scale use of iron weapons began in Asia Minor around the 14th century BCE and in Central Europe around the 11th century BCE followed by the Middle East (about 1000 BCE) and India and China.<ref name=Tucker2>{{cite book|last1=Tucker|first1=Spencer|title=A Global Chronology of Conflict|date=2010|publisher=ABC-CLIO, LLC|location=Santa Barbara, CA|isbn=978-1-85109-672-5|pages=6–7}}</ref>

The [[Assyria]]ns are credited with the introduction of horse cavalry in warfare and the extensive use of iron weapons by 1100 BCE. Assyrians were also the first to use iron-tipped arrows.<ref name=Tucker2 />

{{Further|List of premodern combat weapons}}