Arrow poison
Veneno para flechas
- Date
- c. 24 ka · confidence medium
- Place
- Border Cave, Lebombo Mountains, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa
- Credited to
- Ancestors of the San (early Later Stone Age)
- Field
- Conflict
⚠️ Disputed: the sources disagree.
What it is
A wooden stick with traces of ricinoleic acid, consistent with ricin from castor beans, used as a poison applicator. Poisoned arrows allow large prey to be hunted with lightweight projectiles that kill hours later.
D'Errico et al. (PNAS, 2012) documented an applicator with ricin at Border Cave (~24 ka). A 2026 study (Science Advances) confirmed through direct chemical residues (buphandrine) the use of poison on arrowheads from Umhlatuzana (South Africa) 60,000 years ago, which is no longer a proposal 'under discussion' but the oldest direct evidence of hunting poison known, earlier than Border Cave.
What it led to
- hunting large herbivores with low-power bows
- pharmacological knowledge of plant and animal toxins
- San hunting technology documented into the 20th century