Six, 500 years ago, the hunting kit included spear throws and fragments of boomerangs, as well as wood and stone tip darts. It was discovered in a cave in West Texas near a small fire ruin and was well preserved, pile of human waste – evidence of people who once refuged inside.
The weapon discovered over the past few years near Malfa, a small desert town about 40 miles northwest of the Mexican border, could become one of the oldest almost complete timber and stone hunting equipment found in North America, according to archaeologists at Surros State University and the University of Kansas.
Researchers have not yet published their full findings, but they said the date suggested that one of the weapons was about 7,000 years old. Researchers say artifacts can help ancient humans shine a light on the complicated ways in which they hunt prey and corrected broken belongings.
“We were just surprised because we've never seen anything like that,” said Brion Schroeder, director of the Big Bend Research Center at Surros State University and one of the project's lead researchers.
The kits containing a variety of weapons and folded antelope skins, most likely used to sew bags and clothing, have been discovered at the San Esteban Rock Shelter over the past few years. Dr. Schroeder and his team first began digging at the site in 2019 and began working in collaboration with researchers at the University of Kansas.
The looters have been looting the site for years, Dr. Schroeder said. “We quickly learned that it was really, really, really, really deep in that area of ​​the site,” Dr. Schroeder said. “The reason we were there is to find something really old,” he added. “So we continued to go deeper.”
That's when they found the first part of their hunting kit, he said. As they continued digging, more parts of the kit were discovered.
The number of tools and their location suggests that the cave was most likely used by hunters to stock and repair damaged weapons, Dr. Schroeder said. “They're just doing stocks, he added, “And they're throwing away the broken ones.”
The oldest item is the ATLATL, also known as the spear thrower. The researchers explained in a 2023 paper in the Journal of Big Bend Studies.
Devin Pettigrew, an assistant professor of anthropology at Surros State University and an ancient weapons expert, said that some of the surprising things are part of well-preserved wood, signs and feathers. Usually he said, “All we have left is stone tools.”
In addition to ATLATL, archaeologists have discovered fragments of boomerangs, long wooden tips that may have been used to deliver poison to their bait, as well as wooden darts and stone tips.
“Imagine walking every day this distance, finding a place above the scenery you know and finding shelter,” Dr. Pettigrew said. Hunter could be there for a night or two, setting the fire on and working on the equipment, he added.
“It's rare to get this kind of perspective of ancient people,” he said.
Christopher Morgan, professor of anthropology and archaeology at the University of Nevada in Reno, said the results are important, especially given that North American cave sites rarely remain intact. He was not involved in this study, but he has worked with Dr. Schroeder.
“The evidence lies in the pudding in terms of a thorough explanation of whether those artifacts really go together,” he said. “But so far,” he added.
The age of the item is impressive, but more interesting, Dr. Morgan said it could belong to one weapon kit that was kept in a cave thousands of years ago, which could reveal the behavior of ancient people.
“That's what it stands for. It's like the hunters who lived near the borders of modern-day Texas-Mexican six or eight hundred years ago. This is something they carry around with them every day,” he said. “It shows they were very equipped with sophisticated technology, and they showed they were planning,” added Dr. Morgan. “A gathering of hunters – they are people like you and me, and they are very clever.”
James David Kilby, an anthropology professor at Texas State University and a hunter-gathering archaeology expert who has not been involved in the research, said it is rare to find tools that contain wood and other organic materials intact. “They remind us that stone tools are just one of these much more complicated tools,” he said.
Dr. Schroeder said he and his team are doing a lot of analyses to do not only a human shit that can provide information about diet and DNA, but also weapons. They have been working with Indigenous groups to get approval before proceeding with some of the tests, he added. Researchers hope to finally make the findings fully public.
“It doesn't abstract past methods,” Dr. Schroeder added his findings. “It's like, 'Wow, these people were people.' “He noted the intelligence and prominent adaptation to the environment of those who lived thousands of years ago.
“We always claim to be archaeologists,” he added. “Well, this is proof.”
