Level 1 — Absolute Beginner
Long ago, people lived on the coast of Chile. They used a hunting tool called a spear-thrower. In their language, it is called an estolica.
Scientists first dug up these tools in the 1970s. Now, new research shows the tools are about 5,000 years old. They are the oldest spear-throwers found in the Andes mountains.
The tools came from a place called Caleta Huelen 42. It is near the mouth of the Loa River, in northern Chile. People found twelve spear-throwers there, plus hooks for fishing.
People used the spear-throwers to hunt land animals, like llamas and their wild cousins called guanacos. For fishing, they used a different tool called a harpoon.
- spear-thrower
- a tool that helps a person throw a spear farther and faster
- excavated
- dug up carefully from the ground, often by scientists
- Andes
- a long mountain range in South America
- coast
- land next to the ocean
- hunter-gatherers
- people who find food by hunting animals and gathering plants
- camelid
- an animal family that includes llamas and camels
- guanaco
- a wild animal related to the llama, found in South America
- harpoon
- a spear with a rope, used mainly for catching fish or sea animals
Level 2 — Elementary
Archaeologists have identified what they believe are the oldest securely dated spear-throwers in the Andes mountains, roughly 5,000 years old, by re-examining wooden hunting tools that were first dug up in the 1970s along Chile's Atacama Desert coast.
The tools, known locally as estolicas, were recovered from a site called Caleta Huelen 42, located near the mouth of the Loa River in northern Chile. The settlement was first excavated between 1971 and 1973 and was home to a community of coastal hunter-gatherers who lived there roughly 6,000 to 4,000 years ago.
Excavators originally found twelve spear-throwers at the site, along with fishing hooks and other hunting equipment. Most of the tools were recovered from graves, while a smaller number turned up buried in household refuse, suggesting some were treated as valuable possessions and others as everyday, disposable items.
Researchers believe the spear-throwers were used mainly to hunt land animals, especially camelids such as guanacos, rather than for fishing or hunting marine animals, which relied instead on harpoons. According to the study, spear-throwers likely stayed in use along the coast for thousands of years before bows and arrows eventually replaced them around the fifth century AD.
- securely dated
- confirmed to be from a specific time period with strong scientific evidence
- recovered
- found and retrieved, especially after being lost or buried
- settlement
- a place where a community of people lived
- equipment
- the tools or gear needed for a particular activity
- refuse
- waste material thrown away as unwanted or useless
- possessions
- things that belong to a person or group
- marine
- relating to the sea or ocean
- eventually
- in the end, after some time has passed
Level 3 — Intermediate
A reanalysis of wooden artifacts first unearthed more than five decades ago has yielded what researchers describe as the oldest securely dated spear-throwers documented anywhere in the Andes, pushing the technology's confirmed presence in the region back roughly 5,000 years. The tools, known locally as estolicas, originate from Caleta Huelen 42, a site on Chile's Atacama Desert coast near the mouth of the Loa River.
Originally excavated between 1971 and 1973, the site preserved evidence of a coastal hunter-gatherer community that occupied the area between roughly 6,000 and 4,000 years ago. Of the twelve spear-throwers recovered, the majority came from burial contexts, while a smaller subset was recovered from domestic refuse deposits, a distinction researchers interpret as reflecting differing cultural treatment of the tools depending on their condition or significance.
The functional evidence assembled by the research team points overwhelmingly toward terrestrial hunting rather than maritime subsistence: spear-throwers appear to have been the tool of choice for pursuing land-based camelids, particularly guanacos, while marine resource extraction, including fishing, relied on a distinct toolkit centered on harpoons. This division suggests a deliberately specialized technological repertoire rather than a single, all-purpose hunting implement.
Perhaps most striking is the tool's apparent longevity: the study indicates spear-throwers remained the dominant hunting technology along this stretch of coast for millennia, only yielding to bows and arrows around the fifth century AD, a transition that occurred far later here than in many other regions where archery displaced earlier hunting technologies.
- reanalysis
- a fresh, more careful examination of previously studied material
- unearthed
- dug up out of the ground
- burial contexts
- the specific circumstances and locations in which human remains and grave goods are found
- domestic refuse deposits
- accumulations of everyday household waste at an archaeological site
- terrestrial
- relating to land, as opposed to sea or air
- subsistence
- the means by which a group obtains food and other necessities
- repertoire
- the complete set of skills, tools, or techniques available for use
- longevity
- the length of time something continues to exist or be used
Level 4 — Advanced
A renewed archaeological analysis of wooden artifacts extracted from Chile's Atacama coast more than fifty years ago has established what its authors characterize as the oldest securely dated spear-throwers yet documented in the Andes, extending the technology's confirmed regional pedigree back approximately five millennia. The estolicas in question derive from Caleta Huelen 42, a coastal locus near the Loa River's mouth in northern Chile, initially excavated between 1971 and 1973 but only now subjected to the dating rigor that allows such a definitive chronological claim.
The site preserves the material record of a coastal hunter-gatherer community active roughly 6,000 to 4,000 years ago, and the distribution of the twelve recovered spear-throwers across depositional contexts, predominantly funerary, with a smaller contingent recovered from domestic refuse, offers researchers a tentative window into the differential cultural valuation of individual implements, whether by condition, ownership, or ritual significance.
Functional analysis situates the estolica squarely within a terrestrial hunting regime oriented toward camelids, guanacos chief among them, while conspicuously excluding it from the community's maritime subsistence strategy, which instead depended on a discrete harpoon-based toolkit. This bifurcation implies not technological limitation but deliberate specialization, a hunting economy calibrated to exploit distinct ecological niches with purpose-built implements rather than a single generalized tool pressed into service across every context.
Most consequential, perhaps, is the chronological tail of the estolica's use-life at this locale: the tool persisted as the dominant terrestrial hunting technology for millennia, ceding ground to the bow and arrow only around the fifth century AD, a transition markedly delayed relative to numerous other regions where archery supplanted earlier projectile technologies considerably sooner. That delay itself constitutes a data point worth interrogating, one that may speak to the particular ecological, social, or technological conditions that allowed the estolica such an unusually durable tenure along this stretch of coast.
- pedigree
- a documented history or ancestry establishing legitimacy or age
- locus
- a particular position, point, or place
- depositional contexts
- the specific settings in which archaeological materials came to be buried
- funerary
- relating to burial or funeral practices
- bifurcation
- a division into two distinct branches or parts
- ecological niches
- specific roles or positions occupied by a species within its environment
- projectile
- an object designed to be thrown or launched through the air
- tenure
- the period during which something holds a position or is in use
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