Better propulsion technology permitted smaller, deadlier human weapons

Evidence

At the same time, several key innovations in weapons technology occurred. The addition of feather fletching to thrown spears around 7600 years ago dramatically improved the speed and accuracy of spears. But these advances worked best with smaller, lighter shafts and correspondingly smaller points. Then, around 2000 to 1300 years ago, the bow and arrow replaced atlatl-thrown spears, favoring still smaller shaft and tip sizes. Hunters could shoot arrows farther and faster with a bow than they could hurl darts with an atlatl, improving hunting success still further and making it possible to kill all sorts of new prey animals. Arrow tips, now much smaller than their Clovis predecessors, could be manufactured rapidly using readily available materials, and the bow and arrow was significantly more portable than a spear. — Emlen, Douglas J, Animal Weapons_ The Evolution of Battle, 105

Categorization

• XREF: Technological miniaturization as force multiplier parallels the portability-vs-power tradeoff in animal weapons. — connects to: Early human weapon points shrank rather than grew over time — Emlen, Douglas J, Animal Weapons_ The Evolution of Battle, 102
• QUESTION: When did humans stop being constrained by portability and begin to build larger, siege-scale weapons against other humans rather than prey?

Related

• Early human weapon points shrank rather than grew over time (similarity 0.88)
• Human spear-point size is constrained by shaft balance and penetration requirements (similarity 0.86)
• Weapon evolution is judged by competition among designs, not human survival (similarity 0.82)
• Human spear points shrank as prey species successively dwindled in size (similarity 0.81)
• Comparisons of animal and human weapons have a long scholarly tradition. (similarity 0.80)
• Slow-killing weapons made big warships advantageous and drove an arms race. (similarity 0.80)
• Animal weapons can evolve rapidly within just seven generations (similarity 0.80)
• Identical circumstances trigger and collapse arms races in animals and humans. (similarity 0.79)
• Weapons shrink when predator pressure falls and armor gets costly. (similarity 0.79)
• Predator weapons stay small because larger ones hinder hunting (similarity 0.79)
• Animal weapons evolved to extremes far beyond practical size (similarity 0.78)
• Weapon size in animal species is under stabilizing selection, not open-ended directional selection (similarity 0.78)