Javelin
2 of the 6 encyclopedias on this shelf carry an entry for Javelin. Both are reproduced below, so you can see where they agree and where they differ.
Aiton's Encyclopedia (1910)
jav'lin, a short, light spear thrown from the hand. It consisted of a metal point fixed at the end of a wooden shaft or handle. A strap was sometimes attached to aid in flinging the weapon with force and accuracy. It is an ancient weapon. Saul, it will be remembered, strove to smite David to the wall with a javelin. The pilum which was thrown by Caesar's soldiers, and which caused the attacking Gauls so much inconvenience by pinning their overlapping shields together, was a weapon of this sort. The javelin was a favorite weapon of the Persian horseman and may well be regarded as the forerunner of the knight's lance. In the Middle Ages the javelin or boar spear was the trusty weapon of the hunt. To be advised, thou know'st not what it is With javelin's point a churlish swine to gore. --Shakespeare, Venus and Adonis.
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
a light ponr thrown the hand, formerly used by horse and spear thrown by foot in ancient warfare their ancestors survives in the sed by horse a . Also a hunting spear, Islamism that is now practiced. A few tribes, Also a huntin about 5½ feet long, having a wooden shaft and an iron however, profess the old long, having head. It is yet used religion (viz., the Baduwis in Bantam and the " an iron head. It in Europe in hunting the boar, and by many Heathen" of the Tengger Mountains). The in hunting the boa savage nations in ordinary hunting. native Christians number about 12,000 vage nations in ordinar , and the Chinese Christians a few hundred. The inhabitants
What Has Changed in the Last Century
Both entries treat the javelin purely as a weapon — Aiton's in 1910 calls it "the forerunner of the knight's lance," and Collier's in 1921 says it is "yet used in Europe in hunting the boar." Its surviving life is now almost entirely athletic: the men's javelin throw has been an Olympic event since 1908 and the women's since 1932, and the implement is a standardised piece of sports equipment, 800g for men and 600g for women. When Uwe Hohn threw 104.80 m in 1984 and began landing throws near the far end of stadium infields, the men's javelin was redesigned in 1986 with its centre of gravity moved forward to make it nose-dive earlier; Jan Zelezny's 98.48 m of 1996 still stands as the record with the modern design. Archaeology has also pushed the weapon's ancestry far past anything the 1910 writer imagined, with wooden throwing spears recovered at Schoningen in Germany dated to roughly 300,000 years ago.
Written for this edition, 2026.