Paper Boomerang Book: Build Them, Throw Them, and Get Them to Return Every Time

Paper Boomerang Book: Build Them, Throw Them, and Get Them to Return Every Time — page 5
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