Archaeologists Recently Found Evidence of Poison Arrows Dating Back 60,000 Years Ago

Now this was absolutely fascinating.

Archaeologists have discovered evidence of poisoned arrow tips dating back 60,000 years ago. That 50,000 years before the Agricultural Revolution, which is generally when our modern culture begins to view recorded history. It is - or at least has been - generally assumed that human beings were mostly primitive and very limited in their knowledge and such.

Yet, the idea that they might have mastered some measure of chemistry enough to use arrows tipped with poison to slow down or kill their prey?

To me, that would suggest that many of our collective assumptions about humanity prior to the Agricultural Revolution were, frankly, mistaken. That they probably were a bit more advanced - perhaps quite a bit more advanced - than we had for so long assumed.

Here, take a look at this article about this finding in southern Africa from last month:

Archaeologists Just Discovered the Oldest Known Evidence of Poison Arrows, Which Hunters Used to Slow Down Their Prey 60,000 Years Ago 

New research reveals traces of plant toxins on arrow tips in South Africa, suggesting that the technique was used tens of thousands of years earlier than scientists thought Christian Thorsberg Christian Thorsberg - Correspondent  January 9, 2026:

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/archaeologists-just-discovered-the-oldest-known-evidence-of-poison-arrows-which-hunters-used-to-slow-down-their-prey-60000-years-ago-180987973/

Archaeologists Just Discovered the Oldest Known Evidence of Poison Arrows, Which Hunters Used to Slow Down Their Prey 60,000 Years Ago