The Spear Thrower

By Pamela Loveridge

About eighty thousand years ago in eastern Africa, a young native named Nibu witnesses some lions kill his parents while out hunting. It is extraordinary that even after such a horrific event, Nibu is inspired to invent the throwing spear, a weapon that is far superior to the old hand spear.

This proves to be a momentous achievement for modern humans, as it enables man to become the top predator in Africa. This will change our history forever!

After his invention, Nibu adopts the name “The Spear Thrower”, and goes on to become a living legend in Africa.

In this novel we follow his adventures, and those of his grandson, Tubula.

I am aged, but ageless,
I am you, but still me.
I am
The Spear Thrower.
Can you see me?

• Language: English
• Publisher: Tellwell Talent
• Release date: Oct 23, 2016
• ISBN: 9781925529586

Pamela Loveridge

Pamela Loveridge is a retired pharmacist who lives in Sydney. She is a Fellow of the Pharmaceutical Society of Australia.Her writing history started with the publication of six fairy stories about eight years ago. Some of these were written in 1983-4, when her children were young, but lay hidden away in an exercise book for many years.Pamela self-published her first novel in 2015 “The Neanderthals-A Story of Courage.” In this book she looks at what happened when modern humans first moved into Europe 41,000 years ago, and came across some Neanderthals, peacefully living in France.A year later she has released her second novel "The Spear Thrower" which goes back even further in time, and the story is set in Africa some 80,000 years ago. Her interest in this story is trying to work out what happened to make humans more modern. Apart from evolutionary and cultural changes, she comes to the conclusion that the invention of the throwing spear was a key factor. This invention made man the top predator in Africa, and probably helped man conquer earlier arcahic people in Africa, as well as later, the Neanderthals living outside of Africa.Her third novel, "Robots Rising" was published in 2017 and is set some sixty years in the future. This novel looks at the developments taking place with Artificial Intelligence (AI), and emphasises the potential risks of AI reaching the level of superintelligence. She believes there are important issues for society to plan and think about, especially when AI is applied to robots, which by that later time will probably be stationed throughout the community."Tresoriun Time Travel" is her fourth novel, and this is set about twenty-five years in the future. In this novel she explores a unique form of time travel, Tresoriun time travel, where only certain, rare individuals are able to travel through time, and only in their own lifespan. She hypothesises what might happen when a person reaches their new destination in time- can history rearrange itself?In her fifth novel "Chromosome Six" published in 2021, the author wants to alert readers to be aware of the dangers resulting from genetic experimentation which alters the genome of humans and micro-organisms. Such research can have unpredictable and drastic outcomes, which in certain situations may have lasting consequences for the human race. Society must be vigilant and demand complete transparency as well as strong ethical guidelines regarding all genetic research. Looking at the COVID-19 catastrophe, she observes this seems to be lacking at the moment.Pamela loves writing poetry and wrote her first poem at the age of 8, which was published in the school magazine. She has also enjoyed writing songs, since her teenage years, composing lyrics simultaneously with the melody. Perhaps one day she may seek to publish her favourites. Whenever Pamela writes something, she just sits down and starts writing, and the story, poem or song just seems to flow from her subconscious mind. She says the ideas just pop into her head, usually quite spontaneously.The great loves of her life are her two daughters and four granddaughters who all live in Sydney.

Book preview

the

SPEAR

THROWER

PAMELA LOVERIDGE

This is an IndieMosh book

brought to you by MoshPit Publishing

an imprint of Mosher’s Business Support Pty Ltd

PO BOX 147

Hazelbrook NSW 2779

http://www.indiemosh.com.au/

Copyright 2016 © Pamela Loveridge

All rights reserved

Licence Notes

This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to your favourite ebook retailer and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author. All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted by any person or entity, in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, scanning or by any information storage and retrieval system, without prior permission in writing from the author and publisher.

Disclaimer

This story is entirely a work of fiction.

No character in this story is taken from real life. Any resemblance to any person or persons living or dead is accidental and unintentional.

The author, their agents and publishers cannot be held responsible for any claim otherwise and take no responsibility for any such coincidence.

Contents

Title Page

Dedication

Prologue

The Spear Thrower

Part One: The Early Years

Chapter One: The Lion Attack

Chapter Two: The Genesis

Chapter Three: The Spear Thrower’s Return to His Old Village

Chapter Four: The Search for the Spear Thrower

Chapter Five: Crossing the River

Chapter Six: The Village Shaman

Chapter Seven: Nibu’s Life Across the River

Chapter Eight: Making a Throwing Spear

Chapter Nine: The Cheetah

Chapter Ten: More Killing

Part Two: Life at Nikuta’s Village

Chapter Eleven: I See You, Spear Thrower

Chapter Twelve: Prepare for a Fight

Chapter Thirteen: The Day Arrives

Chapter Fourteen: The New Arrivals

Chapter Fifteen: Problems for the Women

Chapter Sixteen: Married Life

Chapter Seventeen: Meeka’s Mourning

Chapter Eighteen: All About Having a Son

Chapter Nineteen: Another Problem

Part Three: Imbalo and Nattu

Chapter Twenty: Early Days of Banishment

Chapter Twenty-One: Life with the Watonda People

Chapter Twenty-Two: An Honour is Bestowed

Chapter Twenty-Three: Imbalo’s Struggle for Power

Chapter Twenty-Four: Imbalo Takes Over

Chapter Twenty-Five: Imbalo Has a Dream

Part Four: Back at the Spear Thrower’s Birth Village

Chapter Twenty-Six: A Tragic Discovery

Chapter Twenty-Seven: We Must Move Our Village

Chapter Twenty-Eight: The Attack

Chapter Twenty-Nine: The Last Attack

Chapter Thirty: Tubula

Chapter Thirty-One: Tubula’s Travels

Chapter Thirty-Two: Tubula the Teacher

Bibliography

Poetry

About the Author

Copyright statement

To my beautiful granddaughters, Lonneke Mae, Chloe Louise, Ilona

Marilyn and Jemima Pamela.

Children

"For what are all our contrivings,

And the wisdom of our books,

When compared with your caresses,

And the gladness of your looks?"

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Thank you Dior Cherie for your enthusiastic support.

Prologue

Many people share a deep interest in understanding the evolution of modern humans (Homo sapiens). Finally there appears to be a growing consensus amongst the experts, particularly as a result of recent genetic sequencing, that Africa is indeed the home for the genesis of human evolution. It is acknowledged that about 195,000 years ago, modern humans, recognised both anatomically and genetically, made their first appearance in Africa.

Archaeologists have found skulls of the first known modern people, dating back to this period, in the Omo-Kibish region of Ethiopia in eastern Africa. While looking at the genetic research, John Brooke tells us that: In 1987, a team of geneticists at Berkeley led by Rebecca Cann published the first sequencing of mitochondrial DNA, which indicated that all living women carry mtDNA that ‘coalesces’ at a root origin roughly 200,000 years ago.

Amanuel Beyin talks about the importance of environmental settings to human evolution, and says, The underlying hypothesis is that changes in global climate played an important role in fuelling early modern origins and dispersals within and outside of Africa. Indeed there have been marked climate changes over the last 2.5 million years with repeated glacial and interglacial cycles. Other scholars, such as John Brooke, also talk about the importance of global climate changes, saying, Specifically, we can argue that during certain glacial cycles human populations were subjected to severe genetic bottlenecks, reducing their numbers and allowing genes of particular ‘founders’ to sweep through small, isolated populations. As conditions improved, these groups with newly evolved characteristics would multiply rapidly, expanding in numbers and across territory.

Brooke tells us that severe environmental fluctuations between 225,000 years BP (Before Present) and 195,000 years BP must have led to a series of intense mega droughts in East Africa. He goes on to say, The dates of these Omo-Kibish fossils may reflect the expansion of post-drought populations after an intense population crash and bottleneck shaping a fundamental evolutionary emergence. The modern human that emerged from this situation had new mental capacities and also what Wynn and Coolidge (quoted in Wilkins) call enhanced working memory; that is, the ability to plot complex strategies through time and space based on remembered experience.

Jayne Wilkins says when discussing the cognitive development of modern humans that there is evidence for working memory, constructive memory, higher-order and shared intuitiveness, and perhaps non-kin cooperation in the early Middle Pleistocene. Ambrose (quoted in Wilkins) comments on constructive memory, which is required for composite tool making, arguing that: the human capacity for imagining future scenarios and planning for them is more important than working memory, which is focused on immediate tasks.

Wilkins also discusses the difference between learning (such as tool making), by imitation and emulation, both of which are practised by modern humans. Imitation is considered an integral component of social learning in humans, where imitation differs from emulation because it focuses on process, the way of doing something, the exact manner in which the end goal is accomplished. In contrast, emulation is focused on the end goal and an emulator essentially learns the process of getting there on their own.

If we move forward in time approximately another 110,000 years, Forster and Matsumura say, The next event clearly visible in the mitochondrial evolutionary tree is an expansion signature of so-called L2 and L3 mtDNA types in Africa about 85,000 years ago, which now represent more than two-thirds of female lineages throughout most of Africa. Regarding this expansion or internal dispersal, Paul Mellars explains, The point is simply that increased levels of technological efficiency and economic productivity in one small region of Africa could have allowed a rapid expansion of these populations to other regions and an associated competitive (or absorption) of the earlier, technologically less ‘advanced’ populations in these regions.

Even now with such a consensus about the time and place of the appearance of the first modern humans some 195,000 years ago, we find there are still many questions to be answered. Mellars poses one such seminal question about the early modern humans: What were the crucial evolutionary and adaptive developments that allowed these populations to colonise a range of entirely new and alien environments and to successfully compete with, and replace, the long-established, and presumably well adapted, archaic populations in these regions?

This novel attempts to address part of this pressing question, while freely admitting that the answer to this important question is still unresolved by the experts.

Simpson and Beckes quote Charles Darwin’s work, The Descent of Man (1871): The individuals which took the greatest pleasure in society would best escape various dangers; while those that cared least for their comrades and lived solitary would perish in greater numbers. They also acknowledge the sentiments of Richardson and Boyd – that while cultural and social learning occurs in species other than humans, they contend that cumulative knowledge and information is uniquely transmitted from generation to generation in human cultures, which is then built upon by subsequent generations. No other species has such complex cumulative cultural systems.

Simpson and Beckes say that Humans are the most prosocial primate species and one of the most prosocial of all species, also elaborating on Darwin’s ideas by saying Charles Darwin believed that prosocial tendencies probably evolved via natural selection. They go on to explain, Far from being competitive and antagonistic, our most reproductively successful ancestors may have been among the most cooperative and resourceful individuals within their groups.

Looking back to the time 195,000 years ago, we ask ourselves: what was the defining difference between the first modern humans and the more archaic populations? This is an interesting question, especially when we consider that at that time modern humans and more archaic humans had fire, stone tools and hand spears, some form of language, as well as many other living skills and cognitive abilities in common. Was it a genetic evolution, or a cultural evolution that occurred?

I think we can see it was a mixture of both. Remember that this was the time when modern humans had just emerged from a population bottleneck caused by severe global climate changes, as described by Brooke, where they needed to live together cooperatively to survive in the very harsh environment that ravaged the population. When they emerged into a much kinder and less stressful environment, they were lucky with the timing, as the more favourable environment provided them with the opportunity to expand and flourish.

I want to concentrate on the cultural differences between modern humans and more archaic humans, and the one that really stands out is that there is no evidence of artworks before modern humans came on the scene. I think it is reasonable to assume that this cultural deficit could have also extended to a lack of other cultural activities, especially music, involving singing and dancing, which are so much a part of everyday life for modern people. So I thought that a good starting question is: what may have led to these cultural changes I have attributed to modern humans? Considering cultural changes, I believe a small group of people, perhaps even in Ethiopia, where archaeologists found these first modern skulls, developed a more social lifestyle. When these people came together, they bonded in a way to enjoy group activities such as singing, dancing, art, ritual ceremonies and then later religious ceremonies.

These early people were living in a much richer social environment than more archaic people, and were spending more time enjoying the company of others in the group, listening to each other’s different stories, and learning lessons from the experience and wisdom of others. I also agree with Harari in the book Sapiens, which discusses the importance of the gossip theory. This seems to be a basic type of communication in modern people. One can imagine these early people enjoying that most human of activities: partaking in community gossip. So here, also with the singing, dancing and art, was the development of the first modern community that we would readily recognise and understand.

Recently while watching TV, I saw a program that talked about research with oxytocin, a natural substance released in the brains of humans (and also to a lesser extent in other animals). It is said that this substance makes us more sociable, rewarding us when we have social connections with others. Oxytocin is now thought of as the bonding hormone. When people sing or dance together then the levels of oxytocin rise rapidly and markedly, and the emotional centre of their brains is activated. Body movement and memory are also activated when people socialise through music. Recent research has shown that even people with severe dementia respond to music, with a marked though temporarily improved memory and increased lucidity. Who knows, perhaps a simple chemical such as this helped to make us more human.

The early increased social connections with others, which proved pleasurable, could have led to the desire and formation of larger community groups and larger social networks. A consequence of larger networks would have later extended to an enriched sharing of knowledge, and also an involvement in trade and exchanges with other groups of people. While earlier people such as Homo heidelbergensis or the Neanderthals (the latter who were only living outside of Africa) tended to live in smaller clans, often in caves, modern humans – because of their new social and cultural disposition – favoured a larger community group and network, which in turn favoured even further social and cultural development.

At the same time that these cultural changes became more prominent, modern humans may also have become hardwired to have an enhanced imagination, where we are able to imagine the hypothetical, as well as a special ability for abstract thinking – something that we today take for granted. Again I do not want to take credit away from other earlier people or from others such as Homo heidelbergensis, but I think these qualities really define modern humanity, and certainly separate us from all other animals still alive today. Such an enhanced imagination, combined with a keen intelligence, enabled these early modern people to have a higher level of self-awareness and to reflect about life’s profound questions, to dream about their future, to imagine a different lifestyle, to speculate and plan, and importantly to come up with new ideas and inventions to improve life.

It is my belief that this enhanced imagination led someone to come up with stone-age man’s greatest invention – the throwing spear – about 80,000 years ago, perhaps in eastern Africa. Before I continue further, it would be remiss not to mention that stone-tipped throwing spears have been recently found both in South Africa and Ethiopia, and also amongst Homo heidelbergensis’s artefacts, with the ones from Gademotta in Ethiopia dating back 280,000 years and thus predating modern humans. The spearheads of these ancient spears were made from obsidian found near the site, and the crafted spearheads were then securely attached to a wooden spear shaft. Finding such a complex tool from this early period has come as quite a surprise, as archaic populations were often considered by many as the precursor to modern humans, and were therefore presumed to be of an inferior cognitive ability.

But we should not be hasty in drawing too many conclusions about earlier and archaic humans. Even today we notice that we have populations with very different technologies, with some people appearing to have a much more sophisticated technology than others. Therefore in Africa, 80,000 years ago, this could also have been the case with modern humans. Professor John Shea sums this up quite nicely by saying, When Clark’s model of five modes of technology is applied to sites in eastern Africa dating 284,000 to 6000 years ago, a more complex view of prehistoric life there emerges. One does not see a steady accumulation of novel core technologies since our species first appeared or anything like a ‘revolution.’ Instead one sees a persistent pattern of wide technological variability.

I have applied this logic of technological variability to the invention and use of the throwing spear. Certainly while it had already been invented by earlier people, it was probably not being used throughout Africa. There was also the possibility that perhaps on occasions its use died out in areas when the users may also have disappeared. This opens up the opportunity for emulation as described by Wilkins, where a person in Africa was able to reinvent the throwing spear in isolation. Thus we can imagine that when modern humans emerged from one of Brooke’s bottlenecks, that it would be more than reasonable for someone to come up with the idea and ability to make a throwing spear.

Even though the throwing spear was not an entirely new invention by modern people, it was absolutely pivotal to what followed. Before the invention of the throwing spear, humans were using more primitive technology such as hand spears or other hand weapons to hunt and kill animals. Man was really not the top predator in Africa, especially when having to face fierce predators such as the lion. So I theorise that this one simple invention, and widespread adoption of a throwing spear, literally changed the world, by elevating man to the position of top predator.

Imagine someone out hunting gazelle with a hand spear, and then coming across a hungry lion. It would be dangerous work fighting off a lion at close quarters with a hand spear, and one would certainly envisage that the lion would end up being the victor. Under these circumstances the lion would always be considered as the top predator. But just imagine what a difference it would make if the hunter could throw a spear and kill the lion before the lion had a chance to reach him. Suddenly man, not the beast, would be the top predator. This elevated status gave a huge psychological boost to modern humans, and thus changed the history of modern humankind.

Unfortunately for humankind, once man became the top predator, it did not take long to realise that this new throwing spear, as well as being superior for hunting or killing animals, could also be effectively used to kill people. Again, we see how it gave the person with the throwing spear an advantage when killing another person – rather than having to rely on a more risky, direct hand-to-hand encounter, where the outcome would be less predictable. So I can see how this led to the hunting tool also becoming a preferred weapon for people to use against other people. Modern humans, in increasing numbers and larger community groups, armed with throwing spears, and then later with even further improved weapons, became a fierce and formidable opponent to others. It would have been frightening for some of those early people when they were confronted with a war party.

We can see through history the importance of weapons to humans, and how these have continued to evolve and develop over time. We have moved on from the hand spear to the throwing spear, the throwing spear to the throwing spear with an atlatl, bows and arrows to crossbows, guns to automatic weapons, cannons to artillery tanks, bombs to nuclear weapons. It always seems that those with the most powerful weapons tend to become the most powerful communities. I am not saying that the first person who invented the throwing spear had ever considered what was to follow, but I do think the throwing spear was the start of this chain reaction still in progress today!

Some will argue that once a superior weapon is developed then other people will quickly try to develop it also. However, when this occurs, it can result in the development of an equilibrium that provides a stalemate situation, where each group of people sees it no longer has the advantage over the other group. Under these circumstances both groups may see the benefits of engaging in more peaceful ways of living. We have seen such situations in our time with the development of nuclear weapons, which act as a deterrent to their use in war. However, it will only take a renegade leader, a terrorist organisation, or the development of a still more powerful weapon, to change the equilibrium, and world war could easily be on the agenda once again.

But there is no doubt that it took a real imagination and intelligence to make this very first useful invention: the throwing spear. It was indeed a great leap forward for humankind. Unfortunately it is hard to deny that modern humans do seem to be a warlike species, as you only have to look at history to be amazed at how many wars have taken place in the past, and how much fighting is still taking place at the present. It does make you wonder if modern humans, as well as having cooperative and social genes, may also have a war gene encoded into our genome.

It is not unreasonable to think that some of those early people used their more sophisticated weapons to successfully kill other more peaceful people. Perhaps that is why some people may even have moved to other parts of Africa or left altogether between 60,000 and 85,000 years ago. They may not have been trying to escape the challenges of climate change, but were fleeing from more aggressive people, in the hope of having a more peaceful existence.

Recent history shows that in some of our cultures, each new technological invention seems to lead on to the next, and to the next after that, often at an accelerating pace. Today, many of us are