The Spear
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The spear is one of, if not the oldest form of weapon used by mankind. Used to hunt and for protection, these simple weapons consist of a long, usually wooden shaft with a pointed tip. Usually the tip would be made of sharpened stone, but sometimes the wood was just sharpened to a point. The most common material spearheads were made of is flint, the early Chinese often used jade. Spears at first were just used for hand-to-hand combat, but later they were adapted to throw. One unique adaptation of the throwing spear was the atlatl, shown in the diagram to the left.