No One Leaves Africa Without His Bow

One of the most enduring and effective weapons of human history is the bow and arrow. The oldest archaeological evidence of this weapon is 10,000 years ago.


That's a pretty young date compared to Out of Africa, which varies between 125,000 and 50,000 years ago. By then, the only projectile weapon they had was the spear. Effective, maybe, but not without its problems. For one thing, you're throwing it with one arm, which does not provide stability compared to holding the bow on one hand and pulling the arrow on the other, which provides better control.


So if humans invented the bow and the arrow BEFORE leaving Africa, would the course of human culture be affected? If so, how?
 
But even if it is, then would necessarily everyone adopt it? Since into early AD times, bows weren't used among every group in North America, for one reason or another. This means there's reasons why you wouldn't start using bows and stick to spears, atlatls, or other weapons instead.

That said, it would be interesting if groups which don't seem to have ever used bows like Australian Aboriginals had them.
 
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