Small arrowheads have been found in South Africa that date back 60,000 years, tens of thousands of years older than any other known poison arrows. What's even more intriguing, the traces of poison recovered from them are from the plant known as the Bushman's poison bulb (Boophone disticha). The poison extracted from the plant does not kill quickly, but will weaken prey over time. The small arrowheads indicate that they were made to deliver the poison instead of killing an animal outright. Such an arrow would slow the animal down, though, giving human hunters the advantage of their endurance and perseverance in taking down large prey.
The implications of this technique are that early Homo sapiens hunters were strategic thinkers who understood cause-and-effect and delayed results, in addition to the practice of using poison to their own advantage. Read about the discovery and what it means at Smithsonian.
(Image credit: Ton Rulkens)
Commenting on Neatorama will earn you NeatoPoints!