In continuous hunting, poisoned arrows typically did not kill the prey instantly.
Scientists discovered traces of plant poisons on Stone Age arrowheads that were used by hunter-gatherers in South Africa about 60,000 years ago.
According to the authors of the study published recently in the journal Science Advances, the oldest known poisoned arrows have been found. The discovery indicates that such tools and complex hunting strategies existed thousands of years earlier than previously thought.
"In continuous hunting, poisoned arrows typically did not kill the prey instantly," quotes CNN lead author Sven Isaksson, a professor of archaeology at the Archaeological Research Laboratory of Stockholm University. "Instead, the poison helped hunters reduce the time and energy needed to track and exhaust the wounded animal."
Two different alkaloids, or organic plant compounds, found in the residue of the toxic substance were obtained from the plant known as gifbol or dioecious buff, CNN reports. Traditional hunters in the region still use this plant and refer to it as a poisonous bulb.
Hunter-gatherers likely dipped the quartz arrowheads found in 1985 in the rock shelter of Umhlatuzana in KwaZulu-Natal (South Africa) into the poison before using them to kill animals. The presence of poisoned arrows in the late Pleistocene suggests that hunter-gatherers knew which plants to use and how long it would take for the toxins to become effective.
"Understanding that the substance applied to the arrow would weaken the animal within a few hours requires causal reasoning and the ability to foresee distant outcomes," explains Professor Isaksson. "The evidence suggests that prehistoric people possessed advanced cognitive abilities, complex cultural knowledge, and well-developed hunting practices."
According to Isaksson, while people have long consumed plants for food, poisoned arrows are just one example of how our ancestors living during the last Ice Age utilized the chemical properties of plants to develop medicines and toxic substances.
