US EditionEarliest Direct Evidence of Poisoned Arrows Revealed in 60,000-Year-Old Relics
Chemical analysis reveals plant-based poisons on 60,000-year-old arrowheads, showing advanced hunting strategies and cognitive skills among Pleistocene hunter-gatherers in southern Africa.
- At Umhlatuzana Rock Shelter, KwaZulu-Natal Province, South Africa, researchers identified traces of plant-derived poison on quartz microlith arrowheads dating to roughly 60,000 years ago.
- Archaeologists suspected older poison use because bone and stone arrowheads resembled poisoned examples, while the earliest direct evidence came from bone arrowheads in an Egyptian tomb dated little more than 4,000 years and Kruger Cave arrowheads around 6,800 years ago.
- Using gas chromatography–mass spectrometry, the team found buphandrine on five of ten microliths and epibuphanisine on one, both toxic plant alkaloids.
- Researchers argue poisoned arrows indicate advanced planning, botanical knowledge, and causal reasoning among Stone Age hunter-gatherers in southern Africa, pushing back evidence by tens of thousands of years.
- The team compared prehistoric residues with historical specimens and found the same toxic compounds on four 18th-century arrowheads in Swedish collections and noted Indigenous hunters still use Boophone disticha.
67 Articles
67 Articles
Ancient Hunters Used Plant Poison On These Stone Arrows 60,000 Years Ago
Stone Age hunters in South Africa were using plant poison on arrows 60,000 years ago — the oldest direct evidence of this hunting technology ever found. The post Ancient Hunters Used Plant Poison On These Stone Arrows 60,000 Years Ago appeared first on Study Finds.
Poisoned Weapons Are Way Older Than We Thought
The poison-tipped arrow is a trusty tool in the arsenal of any bow-based videogame protagonist. Whether it’s Link in the Zelda series or Alloy in Horizon, you can find a poisoned arrow if you look just a little bit. This, it turns out, is not too far from the truth, as new research suggests that humans were using poisoned weapons as far back as 60,000 years ago. A study published in Science Advances reports that hunter-gatherers in southern Afri…
Archaeologists Just Discovered the Oldest Known Evidence of Poison Arrows, Which Hunters Used to Slow Down Their Prey 60,000 Years Ago
New research reveals traces of plant toxins on arrow tips in South Africa, suggesting that the technique was used tens of thousands of years earlier than scientists thought
South Africa: Arrow Tips Found in South Africa Are the Oldest Evidence of Poison Use in Hunting
Analysis - The oldest evidence for the use of arrow poison globally was long thought to come from Egypt, dating to 4,000 years ago. It was a black, toxic residue on bone arrowheads from a tomb at the Naga ed Der archaeological site.
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