Overview
- A Science Advances study reports toxic alkaloids on five of ten quartz microliths from Umhlatuzana Rock Shelter, including buphandrine and epibuphanisine on one piece.
- Gas chromatography–mass spectrometry identified molecules stable enough to survive tens of millennia in the site’s conditions.
- The compounds align with Boophone disticha and match residues on about 250-year-old South African arrowheads held in Swedish collections.
- Microscopic impact fractures and adhesive traces on the tools indicate they served as projectile tips during Late Pleistocene hunts.
- The discovery extends direct chemical proof of poisoned hunting weapons far earlier than the previous mid-Holocene record and suggests advanced planning and causal reasoning.