Distance as in projectiles?
Neanderthal went north 200,000 years ago, Sapians 40,000.
Third ice age back was a long one, 150,000 years, and it fits the locations where Neanderthals are found.
During that ice age a wall of ice, a cliff five kilometers high, reached from London to the Ural Mountains.
White, south facing, it produced a climate now unknown, The Mammoth Steppe.
For a few hundred kilometers south of the ice cliff was a fog, constant moisture, double light, as the cliff reflected, and the plant life was like nothing today. The fog filtered out UV, harmful to plants, and the Mammoth Steppe was the most productive strip of land ever. It is what supported mass herds, who migrated up and down the line with the seasons.
One, the fog is the reason the Neanderthal developed the calender, for they hunted known migrations, stashed meat in ice caves, and stayed close to the ice, deep in the fog, where knowing the time and path they could be ready.
The tactic of a short charge, stab with a spear, knock the animal down and kill it, would work in dense fog, in thick head high brush, where a wounded animal could be lost forever in a few bounds. Insert lever, tip over animal, keep it from getting it's feet on the ground till it died.
Projectile weapons show up with Sapians who lived south of the fog. They hunted in more open country, and while getting close was harder, tracking was easy. They could watch their prey from a distance, and follow the wounded by sight.
Sapians come north just as the ice wall is melting, 40,000 years ago, and for the next 5,000 years, sight hunting works, then the ice returns.
Those who survive are Neanderthals and breeds,
11 Jul 2010, 9:32 am
