A leister is a type of spear used for spearfishing.[1]
Leisters are three-pronged with backward-facing barbs, historically often built using materials such as bone and ivory, with tools such as the saw-knife.[2][3] In many cases it could be disassembled into a harpoon allowing for greater functionality.[4]
Leisters have been used by hunter-gatherer cultures throughout the world since the Stone Age and are still used for fishing by indigenous tribes and cultures today.[5][6]
↑Painter, Floyd (1983). "Two Basic Paleo-Indian Lithic Traditions Evolving from a Southeastern Hearth (A Revolutionary Idea)". Archaeology of Eastern North America11: 65–79. ISSN0360-1021.
↑Christensen, Marianne; Legoupil, Dominique; Pétillon, Jean-Marc (2016), Langley, Michelle C., ed., "Hunter-Gatherers of the Old and New Worlds: Morphological and Functional Comparisons of Osseous Projectile Points" (in en), Osseous Projectile Weaponry: Towards an Understanding of Pleistocene Cultural Variability, Vertebrate Paleobiology and Paleoanthropology (Springer Netherlands): pp. 237–252, doi:10.1007/978-94-024-0899-7_16, ISBN9789402408997