Stone Age hunting spear v.1.2 Remash with a stone spear tip tied to the wooden shaft by a string. This hunting spear was already used 300 000 years ago. In its throwing properties the wooden spears are on a par with modern competition spears. In tests athletes were able to throw replicas that were true to the original up to 70 meters. Researchers at University College London found after thrown replicas by trained athletes that javelin throws at 20 meters were fatal for big game. As with today s competition javelins the largest diameter and thus the center of gravity is in the front third of the shaft.