Paper Boomerang Book: Build Them, Throw Them, and Get Them to Return Every Time
Making paper boomerangs is an art that anyone can learn and everything you need to know to be successful is in this
A Brief History of Boomerangs Origins The exodus of modern man Homo sapiens sapiens from Africa is now thought to have taken place around 90 000 years ago For about 20 percent of that time approximately 20 000 years humans probably have been making boomerangs If the artifact discovered in the mountains of southern Poland in 1985 by Pawel Valde Nowak and his colleagues from the Polish Academy of Sciences is a boomerang and they are convinced that it is then humans have been making boomerangs for a very long time Valde Nowak and his colleagues found the crescent shaped piece of mammoth's tusk along the Bialka River in the Tatra Mountains which lie between Poland and Slovakia On the same mountain slopes where winter athletes now sweep down on their high tech skis the ancients once fashioned this boomerang This marvel is an example of one type of boomerang the nonreturning boomerang Nonreturning boomerangs also known as throwing sticks or kylies as some of the Australian Aborigines called them have been found all over the world They were used for hunting and could travel long distances easily exceeding 150 yards The tomb of King Tutankhamen who died more than 3 000 years ago held another example of this form of boomerang It is slen der and resembles a curved rib Egyptian throwing sticks were between 10 and 25 inches long and weighed between 2 and 9 ounces They were used to kill small prey such as birds Ancient Egyptians thought the boomerangs could be used in the afterlife
to thwart evil spirits who were thought to appear as birds and harm the dead But the king was well protected Tutankhamen was an avid duck hunter and he too used throwing sticks He was buried with many well preserved samples of them The image below depicts ancient Egyptians duck hunting in the marshes in the 15th century B C The photo was taken inside the tomb of Nakht an Egyptian official who was buried at the The ban Necropolis on the west bank of the Nile River The ancient Egyptians also used a hieroglyph in their writing system that resembled a throwing stick Native Americans of the southwestern United States and northern Mexico including the Hopi Zuni Navajo and Paipai Indians had similar throwing sticks called rabbit sticks for hunting small prey These devices have also been found in India Europe North Africa Canada Indonesia and Australia They also have been found in Iraq along the upper Tigris River where they were used by the ancient Assyrians and Babylonians Excellent examples of wooden nonreturning boomerangs have been nicely preserved in peat bogs across Europe and possibly a few in Australia along with some unlucky men and women who fell in with them Some of these European bog boomerangs date back to approximately 3000 B C The oldest physical evi dence of boomerangs in Australia was found at Wyrie Swamp in 1973 by Hans van Schaik the owner of the bog He had the good fortune of being hospitalized with a kidney stone in the same room with Roger Luebbers an archeologist When van Schaik told Luebbers what he had found Luebbers started digging The boomerangs found at Wyrie date back to 8000 B C The boomerang shown below is 26 7 inches long and weighs 0 8 pounds This type of throwing stick was used for hunting and
a OSUREBOUND An ancient Egyptian hunting ducks with a throwing stick As for returning boomerangs other ancient peoples may have had such devices but the strongest evidence for their place of origin is in Australia The indigenous people of Australia have inhabited the continent for approximately 60 000 years so they had ample time to experiment with both returning and nonre turning boomerangs Physical evidence of boomerangs in Aus tralia dates back as far as 10 000 years and since wood does not last forever the earliest boomerangs may date back further
