Even in the deep Stone Age, humans possessed biochemical knowledge that appears extraordinary by modern standards.
A new study reveals that hunters in southern Africa were already poisoning their arrowheads around 60,000 years ago—tens of millennia earlier than previously believed.
By analysing microscopic residues on ancient artefacts, a Swedish research team identified the alkaloids buphandrine and epibuphanisine. These highly toxic compounds originate from Boophone disticha, a subtropical plant native to the region and notorious for its potency.
Sven Isaksson of Stockholm University, one of the study’s authors, described the discovery as groundbreaking. Through detailed chemical analysis, the team demonstrated that these substances were sufficiently stable to survive in soil for tens of thousands of years. He also emphasised the broader implication: early humans had a sophisticated, durable understanding of how to exploit plant properties for hunting.
Comparable chemical traces were found on arrowheads from the 18th century held in Swedish museum collections, approximately 250 years old. This points to an astonishing continuity in poisoned-arrow technology from prehistory into historical times.
Boophone disticha, sometimes called the “poison onion,” produces a milky sap rich in lethal toxins. While its leaves are relatively mild and were occasionally used as preservatives, the bulb sap was sun-dried, concentrated by boiling, and blended with other ingredients to create a deadly coating for arrowheads.
In humans, exposure can cause nausea, visual disturbances, respiratory paralysis, and coma. For animals, the effects are frequently fatal, granting hunters a decisive advantage even when a shot does not immediately kill.
Until now, the oldest known poison arrows were dated to the mid-Holocene, roughly 9,000 to 5,000 years ago. The new findings push this practice back by tens of thousands of years.
The study demonstrates that early hunters were not merely skilled toolmakers, but also keen observers of plants, chemistry, and cause-and-effect relationships.
Poisoned-arrow hunting demanded foresight, experimentation, and precise technical knowledge—making this discovery one of the strongest pieces of evidence yet for the advanced cognitive and technological capacities of early modern humans.
Sources : Science Advances
