page_title: Spear
section_title: Types
hierarchical_section_title: Spear / Hunting / Types
caption_attribution_description: German; Boar spear; Shafted Weapons
context_page_description: A spear is a pole weapon consisting of a shaft, usually of wood, with a pointed head. The head may be simply the sharpened end of the shaft itself, as is the case with fire hardened spears, or it may be made of a more durable material fastened to the shaft, such as bone, flint, obsidian, iron, steel or bronze. The most common design for hunting or combat spears since ancient times has incorporated a metal spearhead shaped like a triangle, lozenge, or leaf. The heads of fishing spears usually feature barbs or serrated edges.
  The word spear comes from the Old English spere, from the Proto-Germanic speri, from a Proto-Indo-European root *sper- "spear, pole".
  Spears can be divided into two broad categories: those designed for thrusting in melee combat and those designed for throwing.
  The spear has been used throughout human history both as a hunting and fishing tool and as a weapon. Along with the axe, knife, and club; it is one of the earliest and most important tools developed by early humans. As a weapon, it may be wielded with either one or two hands.
context_section_description: Barred spears: A barred spear has a crossbar beneath the blade, to prevent too deep a penetration of the spear into an animal. The bar may be forged as part of the spearhead or may be more loosely tied by means of loops below the blade. Barred spears are known from the Bronze Age, but the first historical record of their use in Europe is found in the writings of Xenophon in the 5th century BC. Examples also are shown in Roman art. In the Middle Ages, a winged or lugged war-spear was developed (see above), but the later Middle Ages saw the development of specialised types, such as the boar-spear and the bear-spear. The boar-spear could be used both on foot or horseback.
  Javelin
  Harpoon
  Trident
caption: A boar-spear with a bar
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