The Prehistory of Poison Arrows

Paleomedicine and the Evolutionary Context of Medicinal Plant Use

“…The only way to identify the probable use of a plant as poison, rather than medicine, is by its context. Traces of Ricinus communis L., Euphorbiaceae (castor oil plant), were detected on a wooden stick similar to those used recently by the Kalahari San as poisons applicators, at the 24.5 ka archeological site of Border Cave in South Africa strongly suggesting it was being used as a poison (d’Errico et al 2012 ) while traces of Euphorbia tirucalli L, Euphorbiaceae, another poisonous plant, were also found at the site (Borgia 2019 ). This plant is well known to contain irritant, cytotoxic, and tumor-promoting constituents such as phorbol ester derivatives found in the latex as 12- O -tetradecanoylphorbol-13-acetate ( 8 ).…”

“…The arrowheads and spear points that were developed by ancient modern humans appear in the archeological record from around 70,000–50,000 years ago. They suggest throwing weapons, enabling hunters to kill without being in direct contact with the animal; however, the stone tips were not strong or large enough to kill most animals and poison is likely to have been applied to the stone tips (Borgia 2019 ).…”

“…(smallpox) virus, together with others including measles (rubeola), decimated around 90% of the Native American population (Roberts 1989). The bacterium Yersinia pestis, which caused three major outbreaks of bubonic plague between AD 541 and the early part of the twentieth century, killed hundreds of millions of people (Benedictow and Benedictow 2004;Wagner et al 2014;Mordechai et al 2019). Though bacteria are more virulent in warmer environments, the temperature range at which most are active is between 5 and 60°C which encompasses most of the hominin (Paleolithic period Homo spp.)…”

The Exploitation of Toxic Fish from the Terminal Pleistocene in Maritime Southeast Asia: A Case Study from the Mindoro Archaeological Sites, Philippines

“…Gimlette [76] reported that, in Kelantan, Malay populations mix the gall of two locally occurring fish species, Tetraodon fluviatilis and Takifugu oblongus, with other local toxins in order to create a powerful poison. Such a mixture could have been coated on hunting devices such as arrowheads [1] or traps used to catch small animals. A small injection of TTX into a prey can cause a fall in blood pressure, slowing of the circulation with cardiac tremor, fibrillation, and paralysis, followed by death [76].…”

“…The use of poison is culturally shared by all historically known hunter-gatherer groups [ 1 , 2 ], suggesting either that this behavior was a convergence acquired independently by the different groups, or that it is a cultural trait deeply rooted in time, with origins predating at least the later out-of-Africa dispersal by Homo sapiens [ 3 ]. The use of poison represents a major step in the evolution of cognitive skills, as it relies on advanced multi-stage processes in terms of techniques [ 1 , 4 , 5 , 6 ] and on the concept of deceit in terms of subsistence strategies and cultural adaptation to the environment [ 1 ].…”