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Originally Posted by Freddy
Here are some examples of harpoon and/or throwing spears in the collection of the Frankfurt Museum für Völkerkunde (etnological museum) in Germany. The drawings come from a book published in 1985 and are of examples in the Museum's collection.
The last drawing also shows a Mongo spear.
Look at the way these shafts 'twist'. |
Actually all but that last one are fairly straight, and may well have been straighter in their using days. I don't think I have ever seen an old African spear handle as wiggly as that one, and would suggest it was not for serious violent use (I would suggest it is a junk shaft put on the blade to sell it to a foreigner, actually, but it could have some other meaning; religious symbolism leaps to mind.). It would really mess with the accuracy and penetration of a throw. Yes, many old spear shafts have a minor bend or two (though the better ones almost all seem to me to have been arrow-straight, so to speak, when new, and I think it is only in treeless or nearly treeless areas that you see the really subpar wood used. It is my understanding that the Mongo do not live in such an area?), but nothing like this.