As of 2024, about how old are the oldest arrowheads ever found?

In 2002, a crew of paleoanthropologists were working in northwestern Ethiopia when they came across chipped stones and fossilized animal bones — telltale signs of a place where ancient people had once lived.

After years of excavations, the researchers discovered that hunter-gatherers had indeed lived there 74,000 years ago. These ancient humans were remarkably adaptable. They made arrows to hunt big game.

At the site, known as Shinfa-Metema 1, the researchers uncovered thousands of bones, some covered in cut marks, from gazelles, warthogs and even giraffes, suggesting that the humans were hunting these species.

The team also found 215 fragments of ostrich eggshells. It’s possible that the people who occupied the site ate the eggs or used the shells as canteens for storing water. The scientists were able to precisely date the shell fragments, which held trace amounts of decaying uranium, to 74,000 years ago.

After analyzing 16,000 chipped rocks, the researchers concluded that they were arrowheads, not spear points. If that holds true in future studies, it will push back the record for archery by several thousand years. The invention of archery meant that hunters didn’t have to approach their prey at close range.