[davidstone]

Do you have a source for this claim? It is contradicted by https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6347593/

"Evidence-based debates around the origins of thrusting and throwing spear use in human evolution have typically focused on hominin skeletal evidence. Proposals that features of the upper limbs of different species of Homo indicate that throwing only comes into play with H. sapiens23,35 are hampered by multiple issues. These include small sample sizes, human variation in populations36, evidence that humeral robusticity and shape may not correlate with strains in weapon use37, and a lack of clarity whether any single activity contributes to or offsets bone remodeling or robusticity36,38,39. Others argue for an earlier emergence of throwing, showing that features necessary for accurate and powerful throwing are evidenced in H. erectus fossils40–42. A recent find of an early Neanderthal dating to MIS 7 from Tourville-la-Rivière shows skeletal trauma consistent with repeated throwing, supporting the hypothesis that they were capable and frequent throwers43."

[cmrdporcupine]

Interesting, I don't have a specific source as I have read about it for years and it was definitely discussed in my wife's physical anthro courses in her recently completely anthro degree.

And I seem to remember this in a display the Museum of Natural History in NY. Neanderthal using speers at close range, but not able to throw an atlatl or speer.

Sounds like people (and I) have been wrong!