Humans made poisonous arrows thousands of years earlier than previously thought
The use of poison on arrows revolutionized human hunting technology – new evidence suggests it happened thousands of years earlier than previously known
Quartz arrowheads dating back 60,000 years from the Umhlatuzana Rock Shelter in South Africa contain traces of poisonous plant alkaloids.
“Direct Evidence for Poison Use on Microlithic Arrowheads in Southern Africa 60,000 Years Ago,” by Sven Isaksson et al. progress of science, Vol. 12. Published online January 7, 2026
Researchers have found traces of what appears to be plant poison on small stone arrows From South Africa, 60,000 years ago. The discovery pushes the origins of this revolutionary hunting technique back thousands of years.
Scientists have long been fascinated by the development of poisonous hunting weapons. For one thing, they would have seriously leveled up the foraging game of our ancestors. For another, they provide a window into cognition: poisonous weapons represent a highly sophisticated technology that requires knowledge of how to extract poison from plants, how the poison affects prey, and how to exploit those effects to increase hunting efficiency.
The oldest direct evidence of previously poisoned weapons came from bone arrowheads in an Egyptian tomb, dated to just over 4,000 years ago, and bone arrowheads from the Kruger Cave in South Africa, dated to approximately 6,800 years ago. However, researchers had reason to suspect that the technology may be much older than that, as they found very old bone and stone arrowheads that resembled poisoned arrows in their size, shape, and wear patterns. But scientists did not have direct evidence of poison on these old weapons.
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In a paper published today progress of science, Sven Isaksson of Stockholm University and colleagues report on their microchemical and biomolecular analysis of residues found on 60,000-year-old quartz arrow tips from the Umhlatuzana Rock Shelter in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. Their analysis revealed toxic compounds from members of the Amaryllidaceae family of flowering plants native to southern Africa. The authors speculate that the ancient humans who made these arrowheads used secretions from the bulbs boofon disticha, It is an Amaryllidaceae species that is well known to have been used as an arrow poison for centuries.
Isakson and his colleagues believe that if recent examples of poisoned arrows are any indication, these poisoned arrows probably did not kill prey animals immediately. Instead they may have weakened the animals over time. Hunters will need to track down wounded animals as they flee.
“Venom is a successful adaptation for humans, and here we see it appearing at least as early as (60,000 years ago),” says Arizona State University’s Curtis Marion, who was not involved in the new study. He noted that the fact that the poison was found on microliths – small stone tools – is also significant. The miniaturization of stone tools was another important advancement for humans, which helped give rise to bow and arrow technology, for example. According to Marion the new discovery raises the question of whether the development of microlith technology is related to the evolution of venom. “I think it looks likely,” he says.
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