This “razor-sharp” discovery points to latest evidence of America’s earliest encounters with Asia.
Archaeologists in Idaho have discovered 14 full and fragmented bullet heads that date back some 15,700 years – making them the oldest weapon heads ever documented in the Americas, according to a latest study published in the journal Science progress.
Similar stone arrowheads found at the same site, in traditional Nez Perce soil, are still some 2,300 years younger than this last set of weapon pommels.
“These findings add very essential details to what the archaeological record of the earliest peoples of the Americas looks like,” said an Oregon State University professor. Loren Daviswho led the recent excavations that uncovered “razor-sharp” weapon heads.
“It’s one thing to say, ‘We imagine humans were here in the Americas 16,000 years ago.’ It’s one other thing to measure it by finding the well-crafted artifacts they left behind,” added Davis, whose research had previously identified fragments of tools and bones from the same era.
Altogether, the team’s excavations at Cooper’s Ferry, near the Salmon River, revealed greater than 65,000 artifacts.
The finely sharpened darts are also strikingly similar to those seen in Hokkaido, Japan, dating to 16,000 to 20,000 years ago, Davis noted – adding intrigue to the hypothesis that Ice Age peoples in North America and Northeast Asia met much earlier, than we are able to yet prove.
“By comparing these points with other sites of the same age and older, we are able to infer the spatial extent of social networks where this technological knowledge was shared amongst nations,” Davis said.
And despite their small size, with each dart tip not greater than two inches long, scientists say these weapon heads were “lethal” in the hands of a talented hunter.
“The smaller projectile points mounted on the darts penetrate deep and cause massive internal damage,” Davis explained. “You may hunt any animal we all know of with a weapon like this.”