
Archaeologists studying the Obi-Rakhmat site in Uzbekistan have identified tiny stone points, some less than 2 centimeters wide, that appear to be the oldest known projectile weapons of their kind, dated to about 80,000 years ago. The small, triangular points show impact damage that matches how an arrowhead like weapon breaks on contact, and they closely resemble tools used much later by Homo sapiens in France. At roughly 6,000 years older than the previous record from Ethiopia, the discovery, published in the journal PLOS One, suggests advanced weapon technology may have developed in Central Asia earlier than scientists thought.

Tech · Sep 7 · L1-L4