I saw the little slogan thingy on the website and got thinking; what weapons did stone age people use?  So I checked a whole load of resources and can come up with this little list.  If anyone wants to add to it, they can.
Paleolithic (old stone age):
Bolas are in use worldwide, the forerunner of the sling.  These weapons are being used against a multitude oof targets, ranging from small mammals and birds, to big cats and other larger, more dangerous foes.  Many archaeologists believe that bows were beginning to be used by some very advanced cultures late in the paleolithic, but the main weapon to begin with was the spear, and later, the atlatl.  The first spears were simply long sharp sticks, fire hardened.  Then came the technology of flint-knapping, hence the name, stone age.  Atlatls were being used widely; in Europe, they seldom developed beyond a simple atlatl, used to throw large, thick spears, (partly because better technology, namely the bow and arrows, existed), whereas elsewhere, in Australasia and America, long thin "darts" were (later) employed.  The first bows emerge, on the borderline between Paleolithic and Mesolithic epochs.  They are simple affairs, developed from the atlatl (seems odd, but apparently they are much the same kind of weapon; the only difference is that the bow is a linear accelerator, giving power in a straight line from behind, whereas an atlatl is an angular accelerator, giving power in a curve from behind.)  These bows are primarily in the middle east, but their usage gradually spreads.
Mesolithic (middle stone age):
Bows were very much in use in the mesolithic, as the Holmegaard finds are Mesolithic/Neolithic transition period weapons.  People in Spain and North Africa, based on cave paintings, are using two main types of bow; the simple segment bow, of single stave which can bend into a full arc, and doubly convex bows, which are bows where the tips bend towards the archer.  In Scandinavia, fur hunters are using simple flatbows, and nice skis, shorter than modern skis.  Various arrowheads exist; chisel shaped, popular historically and useful for larger animals; blunts, used for small animals when the hunter doesn't want to damage the fur; some neat leaf shaped arrowhead used late in the mesolithic, and neat points.  Throwing sticks are being used, as in the Paleolithic, as are spears and atlatls.  The throwing sticks are curved ones, in keeping with modern ideas about momentum, etc.  It is believed that in the mesolithic, many cultures developed slings, mostly from rawhide, furs, or plant fibres, (so I was wrong about slings coming before bows, although it is entirely possible there did exist before bows, slings, but there is no archaeological evidence.)  Rock paintings show throwing sticks and bows, and some (apparently, for I have not found any on the internet) show slings.  In Lascaux, in France, cave paintings depict numerous things, such as hunts, etc, and harpoon heads are found, for hunting large game.  These painting were done 17,000 years ago.  And in Siberia, the people are hunting using antler bows, made of two long parts of antlers, joined at the middle.
Neolithic (new stone age):
Bows were most commonly used; the archaeological finds at Holmegaard in Denmark show a flatbow design with cut out handle, quite advanced.  Atlatls were still being used, in certain parts of the world, and technically the neolithic period continued in North America until the nineteenth century.  Spears were being used, mostly with neatly knapped stone heads bound onto long shafts.  Knives, naturally, are being used, as they were in the early stone age periods.  The holmegaard finds show a rather advanced ability in terms of flint knapping, and judging by their bows, they wielded their knives with some skill.  The bows found at Ashcott Heath and Meare Heath in England are actually less advanced, despite being of a later date, although they are much longer and incorporate technology in use by iron age Danes later on; the bows are wrapped, to protect them from cracking, by leather.  Many believe that the fact that they are worse than the Holemgaard bows is that at the time, farming was the new way to get food, and so hunting became less important.  Throwing sticks are still being used, as they are to the present day, in many cultures.  Blowguns are beginning to be used in the far east and in the Americas.  Weaponry begins to diversify, and new weapons such as the above blowguns begin to appear.  Bronze becomes in vogue for the newer cultures, such as the emerging empires in the middle east.  Civilizations begin to employ soldiers armed with bronze swords and other weaponry.  So ends the stone age.

Humans have (probably) been killing each other for as long as there have been humans.  Before specialized tools for killing (weapons) they just used branches, rocks, or their bare hands. 

Chris

Shultze wrote on Apr 30^th, 2004 at 7:54am:


Hi John,
I realize this was an old thread but it was such a good statement that I couldn't resist.
Besides that, it's a new discussion to me.

I doubt that a bronze sword was the first specifically made-for-murder weapon.
I'm reasonably sure that if I had a grudge against someone and was plotting their demise, I would make a nice purpose-driven club or spear.
Obviously we're talking about planned or 1st degree murder. A killing of opportunity would suggest simply grabbing the first thing that comes to hand but planning the death of another human, of your own tribe or not, that takes thought and ergo a special weapon.
Such a weapon would likely be made to intimidate the victim which would result in the killer feeling much more superior; a feeling which is almost always needed in first degree killings.

For the record, I'm a combat vet.
I have killed only on orders.