Arabia: stone points from 125,000 years ago, perhaps poisoned
· BehindLines newsroom
Archaeologists describe, in the journal Science of 12 November 2026, a 125,000-year-old site on the shore of an ancient lake in southern Saudi Arabia. Stone points there carry chemical residues that could be traces of hunting poison. Live Science, Gizmodo and The Conversation, where members of the team wrote a piece, report on the work.
A lake in the middle of the desert
The site, called 'Uruq Aljelibah, lies in the Empty Quarter, one of the hottest and driest deserts in the world. According to Live Science, it nevertheless once held a freshwater lake of about 340 square kilometres, up to 29 metres deep. Fossils point to hippopotamuses, buffalo, ostriches, camels, gazelles and oryx. Live Science and The Conversation report more than 5,500 stone objects collected; Gizmodo gives about 5,000. According to The Conversation, some pieces fit back together, which helps locate the places where tools were made. The dating relies on the luminescence of buried sand grains, the authors explain in The Conversation.
Composite weapons
Several points show breakage consistent with hunting impacts, and microscope examination revealed traces of animal tissue near their tips. According to The Conversation, on one of them, resin and plant fibres near the base suggest it was glued and bound to a shaft; the authors cannot say whether it was thrown or thrust. Chemical analyses revealed compounds linked to the arrow-poison tree, Acokanthera schimperi, whose toxins act on the heart. Live Science notes that African hunters have smeared extracts of this plant on spear and arrow tips. Poisoned arrowheads recently identified in South Africa date to about 60,000 years ago.
Caution on purpose
Chris Clarkson, of the Max-Planck Institute of Geoanthropology and Griffith University, tells Live Science the team has shown neither the way the poison was made nor its efficacy. He speaks of possibly the oldest evidence of poisoned hunting weapons, not of a first beyond dispute. Eleanor Scerri, of the Max-Planck Institute, who took no part in the study, finds the quantity of evidence on how tools were made and used remarkable. Jeffrey Rose, of the University of Algarve, also outside the work, points out that sites in the region combining stone tools and animal bones are rare.
Why it matters
According to Gizmodo, these results qualify the idea that the Arabian Peninsula was only a corridor between Africa and Asia: groups of humans chose to settle there. The Conversation text adds that it is not known where the inhabitants went when the climate turned drier. Clarkson tells Gizmodo that the team will keep studying the poison residues, whose preparation and effectiveness remain unclear, and explore other sites near the lake.