60,000-year-old poison arrows from South Africa are the oldest poison weapons ever discovered

abdulmanannet77@gmail.comJanuary 7, 2026

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60,000-year-old poison arrows from South Africa are the oldest poison weapons ever discovered

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A handful of 60,000-year-old arrowheads discovered in a South African rock shelter constitute the world’s oldest evidence of poisoned weapons, according to a new study.

This discovery pushes back the confirmed use of poisoned weapons by hunter-gatherers by more than 50,000 years.

In the new study, scientists chemically analyzed 10 arrowheads found decades ago in the Umhlatuzana rock shelter. They found that five still contained traces of slow-acting poisons. These substances, likely derived from a species of tumbleweed, are believed to have weakened targeted prey and significantly reduced the time and energy required to persistence huntswrote the authors in the study published Wednesday January 7 in the journal Scientific advances.

According to the researchers, this discovery shows that prehistoric hunter-gatherers understood the pharmacological effects of these plants.

“Humans have long relied on plants for food and tools, but this discovery demonstrates the deliberate exploitation of plants’ biochemical properties,” said the study’s lead author. Sven Isakssonprofessor of laboratory archeology at Stockholm University, told Live Science.

Additionally, poisoned arrowheads reveal that these prehistoric hunters could think in complex ways. The poison takes time to take effect, so hunters had to understand cause and effect and plan their hunts in advance, Isaksson said.

Previously, the oldest unequivocal evidence of the use of poisoned weapons was A 7,000-year-old arrow poison nestled in the thigh bone of an ungulate mammal found in Kruger Cave in South Africa. Although there are older discoveries, such as indirect evidence of a 24,000-year-old wooden “poison applicator” from Border Cave, also in South Africa — they are the subject of debate.

Poisoned Weapons

Poisons degrade over time, but traces of these chemicals can survive under certain conditions.

The Umhlatuzana rock shelter, excavated in 1985is a prime location for such conditions. Archaeologists had already unearthed 649 fragments of artisanal quartz from the Howiesons Poort period, a distinct South African technological culture dating from 65,000 to 60,000 years ago. But no one had closely inspected the surface of these remains, other than looking for glues used to attach arrowheads to arrow shafts.

For the new study, Isaksson and his team took a closer look at 10 of the 216 available arrowheads from an excavation layer dated 60,000 years ago; these 10 were selected because they still contained microscopic residues that could be analyzed.

Front and back of an arrowhead with microscope images and reconstruction of the arrow.

Each poisoned arrowhead found at the Umhlatuzana rock shelter (left) is believed to have been mounted on a shaft, like the 2,000-year-old arrow (right). (Image credit: Marlize Lombard)

Researchers found traces of buphandrin, a plant-based toxin, in the residue of five arrowheads, one of which also contained epibuphanisin. The five arrowheads were likely originally imbued with the two toxins, but there were not enough remains to be detected with current technology, Isaksson said.

Both toxins are found in southern African plants, but only species disticha boophone — known locally as “poison bulb“- is fine known as arrow poisonmaking it the most likely source of the poison. In fact, the team also detected the two toxic chemicals in four arrows from 18th-century South Africa. An analysis of the milky extract of modern B. disticha The bulbs confirmed the presence of both toxins in the species. Although there is no evidence that B. disticha Growing in the area 60,000 years ago, the plant is now found less than 12.5 kilometers from the rock shelter.

The discovery of these ancient poisoned arrows is “quite remarkable”. Justin Bradfieldassociate professor of archeology at the University of Johannesburg who was not involved in the study, told Live Science in an email.

It is important to note that the hunter-gatherers of Umhlatuzana appear to have used a single-component poison; More complex recipes, like the one found in Kruger Cave, were potentially invented much later, Bradfield said.

Archaeologists have long assumed that hunter-gatherers were aware of plant toxins and their uses. However, the new findings reveal that these toxins can survive for tens of thousands of years, opening the door to more research, Bradfield said.

In the future, the team plans to examine more recent deposits from the rock shelter to determine whether the use of poison arrows was a continuing practice or if it died out before being rediscovered.