Overview
- Researchers report in Science Advances that five quartz points from the Umhlatuzana rock-shelter date to roughly 60,000 years after confirming the sediment age via geochemical and magnetic analyses.
- Gas chromatography–mass spectrometry identified the alkaloids buphandrine and epibuphanisine, compounds associated with Boophone disticha, also known as gifbol.
- Molecular profiles on the ancient points matched residues on 18th-century poisoned arrows collected in southern Africa and held in Swedish collections tied to Carl Peter Thunberg.
- The findings provide the earliest direct evidence of poison-tipped projectiles, pushing the timeline back by more than 50,000 years from previous examples under 7,000 years old.
- Because gifbol acts slowly, the study infers hunting strategies that involved tracking and procedural knowledge, while questions remain about cultural continuity versus repeated reinvention over deep time.