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( Boomerang)
A boomerang is a simple implement used for various purposes. It is primarily associated with Australian Aborigines, but has been found amongst peoples of North East Africa, Sardinia, Arizona, southern California Native Americans, and in India.[1][2][3] Boomerangs come in many shapes and sizes depending on their geographic/tribal origins and intended function. The most recognisable type is the returning boomerang, a kind of throwing stick that, when thrown correctly, travels in a curved path and returns to its point of origin. Other types of boomerang are of the non-returning sort, and indeed, some are not thrown at all but are used in hand-to-hand combat by Aboriginal people.[4] Boomerangs can be variously used as hunting weapons, percussive musical instruments, battle clubs, fire-starters, decoys for hunting waterfowl, and as recreational play toys. The smallest boomerang may be less than 10 cm from tip-to-tip, and the largest over 2 meters in length.[5] Tribal boomerangs may be inscribed and/or painted with designs meaningful to its maker. Most boomerangs seen today are of the tourist or competition sort, and are almost invariably of the returning type. Boomerangs are probably the first heavier-than-air flying machine ever invented by human beings. The oldest Australian Aboriginal boomerangs are ten thousand years old but older hunting sticks have been discovered in Europe, where they seem to have formed part of the stone age arsenal of weapons.[6] One boomerang that was discovered in a cave in the Carpathian Mountains in Poland was made of mammoth's tusk and is believed, based on AMS dating of objects found with it, to be about 30,000 years old.[7][8] King Tutankhamun, the famous Pharaoh of ancient Egypt, who died over 3,000 years ago, owned a collection of boomerangs of both the straight flying (hunting) and returning variety.[6]
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