The stick does not get the evolutionary love it deserves. Archaeologist Alexander Langlands reprinted an excerpt from his new book on Nautilus, in which he celebrates the often-overlooked history of the stick in the development of human craft, from the first conjoining of arrowhead and stick to a perfect frame of snooker in 1997. Because wood does not survive with the same durability as stone, less is known about the progression of early humans’ stick usage. Langlands points to hafting, the technological achievement of attaching stick and stone, as one of the key moments in human history, or as he calls it, “the creation of an extended limb.” The sticks we now use for sport are evidence of the creativity that propped up early human survival.
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