xxkid123 wrote on Mar 11
th, 2012 at 6:22pm:
I'm not sure what the rate of technological increase back then was. It could have taken only a couple of years to further develop the sling into an atlatl, or it could have taken 20,000 more.
The rate was very slow during the Neanderthal era, as testified by flint tools that remains the same for almost 200'000 years, and compared to the Homo Sapiens Sapiens era, during which these tools evolved from flint to metal in a mere 25'000 years.
Obviously, a simple technology require a simple mind to be developed (note that I'm not diminishing our ancestor's intelligence, absolutely not!), and I wouldn't be surprised if the sling was adopted almost everywhere in a very short range of time.
Plus, what I personally believe after having done some anthropological analysis on the sling, is that this technology is so simple that multiple cultures can achieve it even if there're no commercial or military contacts between them.
There's a theory about this matter but I can't remember its name!
Greetings,
Mauro.
PS
kid, would you please tell us more about this Lovelock cave? I'm going to do some researches, but would you give us more info, I'd be really grateful - in public or via PM as you like.