A 61,700-year-old sharpened bone artifact found in South Africa 10 years ago, in turns out, was actually an arrowhead, scientists have claimed in a paper in Antiquity.
This analysisis significant, researchers say, in that it supports the claim that bone weapon tips were used in South African hunting long before the Eurasian Upper Palaeolithic.
So old is the arrow technology found at Sibudu in KwaZulu-Natal, it predates anything found in Eurasia by well over 10,000 years, according to the report.
What is confusing about the bone point, however, is that it was found in a hearth, and showed heat marks.
In 2010, the U.K.'s BBC reported that closer inspection of the ancient weapon fragment revealed remnants of blood and bone that provided clues about how it was used.
According to the BBC report, the excavation of the bone was led by Professor Lyn Wadley from the University of the Witwatersrand, and Marlize Lombard led the examination of the findings.
The team dug through layers deposited up to 100,000 years ago.
Lombard described her study as "stone-age forensics". "We took the [points] directly from the site, in little [plastic] baggies, to the lab," she told BBC News.
"Then I started the tedious work of analysing them [under the microscope], looking at the distribution patterns of blood and bone residues."
Because of the shape of these "little geometric pieces", Dr Lombard was able to see exactly where they had been impacted and damaged. This showed that they were very likely to have been the tips of projectiles — rather than sharp points on the end of hand-held spears.
In favour of the Sibudu artifact being an arrow tip is the fact that it has a marked similarity to bone arrowheads used in the 20th century by San hunters. It was clearly modified using stone tools.
And more to the point, earlier research noted that impact cracks in the implement support its use as a weapon, not some sort of domestic doohickey.
For the full story, read Haaretz here.