News Archaeology

60,000-year-old poison arrowheads show early humans’ skillful hunting

The South Africa find pushes the timeline for poisoned weapons back more than 50,000 years

Two triangle shaped rocks are on a white background. The view of the arrowhead on the left shows orange poison residue.

Organic residues on ancient stone points (the orange material visible in the view on the left) still contain traces of a plant-based poison after 60,000 years in the ground, a new analysis shows.

Marlize Lombard

By Tom Metcalfe

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