Poisoned arrows have been part of hunting and warfare for centuries. Ancient Greeks and Romans documented methods for making these deadly weapons in their writings. Similarly, many cultures, including Chinese warriors and Native American tribes, also used poisoned projectiles.
Recently, archaeologists made a groundbreaking discovery in South Africa. They found plant-based poisons on 60,000-year-old quartz arrowheads, according to a study published in Science Advances. This evidence suggests that humans were using poisoned arrows much earlier than previously thought.
Poisonous substances can come from plants or animals. For example, curare is a plant poison that causes paralysis and asphyxiation. Oleander and milkweed contain deadly cardiac glycosides. In Southeast Asia, the sap of the ancar tree is used to coat arrowheads, leading to paralysis and even death. In places like Siberia and northern Japan, people used aconite as an arrow poison.
Until this recent finding, the oldest evidence of poisoned arrows dated back only about 4,000 years. Scientists discovered toxic residues on ancient Egyptian bone-tipped arrows and on bone points from South Africa that are around 6,700 years old. Earlier studies had only uncovered a “poison applicator” at Border Cave in South Africa, indicating the use of poisons in the Stone Age.
In their study, researchers tested quartz arrowheads from a site in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. Five out of ten arrow tips showed traces of Boophone disticha, commonly known as the poisonous onion. This plant has been used historically as both a pain reliever and a poison. Its key toxins, buphandrine and crinamidine, can cause severe effects, including hallucinations or death.
This discovery sheds light on the sophisticated hunting strategies of early humans and shows how long we’ve been harnessing nature’s poisons. Understanding this history helps us appreciate the ingenuity of our ancestors in survival and warfare.
