Overview
- A peer-reviewed study in Science Advances reports plant toxin residues on Stone Age projectile tips from Umhlatuzana Rock Shelter in KwaZulu-Natal.
- Five of ten quartz microliths dated to around 60,000 years ago yielded residues, pushing the earliest direct evidence of poison-arrow use back by tens of thousands of years.
- Molecular signatures match Boophone disticha, a plant historically used by San and Khoe communities, with parallel compounds identified on 18th-century arrowheads in Swedish collections.
- The detected substances are poisonous yet persist only as minute, nonlethal traces on the artifacts, according to lead author Sven Isaksson of Stockholm University.
- Impact fractures and adhesive traces support use as arrow tips, and the delayed-acting toxins imply planned pursuit hunting, with researchers set to test additional South African sites.