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African Spears
People collect the strangest things and what may seem like odd stuff to one person are another person’s treasures. People collect an odd assortment of things like vases, stamps, action figures, pressed flowers and some people even collect weapons or specific weapons like spears. All sorts of spears can be found on display in their house from African spears to Chinese spears. One sometimes wonders where they get all these things from and what the fascination with these implements of war are, but when you go into detail about any object you will soon discover that they are often amazingly interesting and intricate and hide a world that few people would have ever thought exists.
Spears have been around for as long as people have been able to think for themselves and some archaeologists and anthropologists believe even before then. The spear has stayed in the same shape and form for thousands of years and when you look at African spears, Roman spears or any other spears you will see that the same basic design is repeated over and over again. A spear is simply a long pole weapon made from some sturdy material like wood or bamboo. At its most basic one end of the pole is sharpened to a point but more often than not a triangular blade was attached to the end of the pole. The blade could have been made from stone or flint but as time and technology passed the blade was made from bronze, steel or iron. Once used for both hunting and war, the spear is still seen today as the bayonet that is attached to the end of a rifle’s barrel.
Even though the spear in its many forms has been around for a long time and even though the appearance is generally the same no matter who made it, they did differ on various levels throughout history. The African spears, for example, were called assegai and they were usually used for throwing but also to a lesser extent in close quarters combat. The spear was used throughout Africa but is especially linked to South Africa where they were used by the Nguni and Zulu tribes. Shaka of the Zulu invented the shorter assegai called lklwa that was mainly used in melee. He used the longer spear to attack from range and the shorter spear to attack the enemy face-to-face. These spears were widely different from the pilum and javelin used by the Romans and differed immensely from the large and naginata used in feudal Japan.
But even though the spears differed around the world, the basic principle of the weapon remained the same. Taking a closer look at the different African spears, Roman spears and all the other spears in the world reveals the incredibly history behind one of the simplest weapons. Whether used for hunting, fishing or for warfare, the spear has been an integral part of human civilization and who knows what other uses its basic design will lead to in the future.
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