Editing Paleolithic (section)

=== Advanced tools ===
By around 200,000&nbsp;BP, Middle Paleolithic [[stone tool]] manufacturing spawned a tool-making technique known as the [[prepared-core technique]], which was more elaborate than previous [[Acheulean]] techniques.<ref name="encarta.msn.com"/> This technique increased efficiency by allowing the creation of more controlled and consistent [[Lithic flake|flakes]].<ref name="encarta.msn.com"/> It allowed [[Middle Paleolithic]] humans to create stone-tipped [[spear]]s, which were the earliest composite tools, by hafting sharp pointy stone flakes onto wooden shafts. In addition to improving tool-making methods, the Middle Paleolithic also saw an improvement of the tools themselves that allowed access to a wider variety and amount of food sources. For example, [[microlith]]s or small stone tools or points were invented around 70,000–65,000&nbsp;BP and were essential to the invention of bows and [[Spear-thrower|atlatls]] (spear throwers) in the following Upper Paleolithic.<ref name=MarloweFW22/>

[[Harpoon]]s were invented and used for the first time during the late Middle Paleolithic ({{c.|90,000}}&nbsp;BP); the invention of these devices brought fish into the human diets, which provided a hedge against starvation and a more abundant food supply.<ref name="Miller2006"/><ref name="ReferenceA-1">[http://encarta.msn.com/encyclopedia_761566394_12/human_evolution.html "Human Evolution," Microsoft Encarta Online Encyclopedia 2007] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080408032236/http://encarta.msn.com/encyclopedia_761566394_12/human_evolution.html |date=2008-04-08 }} Contributed by Richard B. Potts, B.A., Ph.D.</ref> Thanks to their technology and their advanced social structures, Paleolithic groups such as the Neanderthals—who had a Middle Paleolithic level of technology—appear to have hunted large game just as well as Upper Paleolithic modern humans,<ref name=Parson2006>{{cite web |url=http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2006/01/0125_060125_neanderthal.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060217152429/http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2006/01/0125_060125_neanderthal.html |url-status=dead |archive-date=February 17, 2006 |title=Neanderthals Hunted as Well as Humans, Study Says |work=National Geographic News |author=Ann Parson |access-date=2008-02-01}}</ref> and the Neanderthals in particular may have likewise hunted with projectile weapons.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Boëda |first1=E. |last2=Geneste |first2=J.M. |last3=Griggo |first3=C. |last4=Mercier |first4=N. |last5=Muhesen |first5=S. |last6=Reyss |first6=J.L. |last7=Taha |first7=A. |last8=Valladas |first8=H. |year=1999 |title=A Levallois point embedded in the vertebra of a wild ass (Equus africanus): Hafting, projectiles and Mousterian hunting |journal=[[Antiquity (journal)|Antiquity]] |volume=73 |issue=280 |pages=394–402 |doi=10.1017/S0003598X00088335 |s2cid=163560577}}</ref> Nonetheless, Neanderthal use of projectile weapons in hunting occurred very rarely (or perhaps never) and the Neanderthals hunted large game animals mostly by [[ambush]]ing them and attacking them with handheld weapons such as thrusting spears rather than attacking them from a distance with projectiles.<ref name="Hillary Mayell"/><ref>{{cite news |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/4251299.stm |title= The icy truth behind Neanderthals |work=[[BBC News]] |first=Cameron |last=Balbirnie |access-date=1 April 2008 |date=10 May 2005}}</ref>