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In this paper we present the development of a method for the detection of toxic substances on ancient arrow points. The aim is to go back in time until the Palaeolithic period in order to determine if poisonous substances were used to enhance the hunting weapons.The ethnographic documentation demonstrates that hunters of every latitude poisoned their weapons with toxic substances derived from plants and occasionally from animals. This highlights that often the weapons would be rather ineffective if the tips were not poisoned. The fact that toxic substances were available and the benefits arising from their application on throwing weapons, suggests that this practice could be widespread also among prehistoric hunters.The project reviewed the research of the toxic molecules starting from current information on modern plants and working backwards through the ages with the study of ethnographic and historical weapons. This knowledge was then applied to the archaeological material collected from International museum collections.Results have shown that using this method it is possible to detect traces of toxic molecules with mass spectrometry (MS) and hyphenated chromatographic techniques even on samples older than one hundred years, which we consider a positive incentive to continue studying plant poisons on ancient hunting tools.

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Abstract:The current paper aims at describing and analysing the backed tools found in two Early Gravettian sites separated geographically from each other: Grotta Paglicci (layer 23-22) in Italy, and Kostenki 8 (layer II) in Russia. A similarity between the lithic assemblages of the two sites, and other cultural aspects, has been reported by authors over many decades. The analysis of the backed tools has created the opportunity to apply the same methodological approach to verify the resemblance and potential causes for the similarity, and also to address broader considerations on Gravettian hunting strategies and the modalities and timing of the spread of new techniques, whether related to physical movement of people or assimilation of ideas. The perception is that, during the Gravettian period, shared symbolic behaviours and subsistence strategies linked people living in completely different environments with completely different resources, from the temperate regions of southern Italy, to the very cold Russian plains. This point of view cannot be questioned, but it tends to flatten an articulated palimpsest of human generations and to underestimate the very low demographic density of Prehistoric Europe.

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The impact of deteriorating climatic conditions on variability in the archaeological record towards the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) remains uncertain. Partly as a result of poor-quality data, previous studies on Upper Palaeolithic (UP) societies of North-Western Europe prior to the LGM have focused on techno-typological traditions and diversification to outline the diachronic processes through which assemblage composition changed. This study addresses the adaptive trade-offs brought about by the general climatic downturn towards the LGM in North-Western Europe, by investigating the impact of local climate and habitat characteristics on the behavioural variability that characterises Gravettian technological organisation compared to the previous Aurignacian, based on two assemblages from Walou Cave, Belgium. This site is one of the rare well-stratified sites in North-Western Europe with evidence for multiple occupation events accompanied by a fine-grained palaeoenvironmental record. We use a combination of analytical techniques (AMS, LA-ICP-MS and ZooMS) to evaluate questions about hunter-gatherer adaptations. Faunal remains at Walou Cave mirror the faunal diversity documented at numerous other Aurignacian and Gravettian sites in the broader European context, which is similar between both periods. The overall picture presented here, using multiple lines of evidence, is not entirely clear; nonetheless, the results suggest that Gravettian technologies are unlikely to solely be a product of heightened risk in relation to a significant reshuffling of food resources compared to the previous Aurignacian. Future research of the factors structuring assemblage variability prior to the LGM will have to assess whether Aurignacian and Gravettian technologies indeed offer no relative material advantage over one another, a phenomenon called ‘technological equivalence’.

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