This article has been reviewed according to Science X's editorial process and policies. Editors have highlighted the following attributes while ensuring the content's credibility: Autumn walks in Britain are glorious, as the foliage changes color and cool, crisp air begins to bite. However, some of these European trees hide a much darker secret.
For example, the yew tree's lovely red arils—the cup-shaped coverings around the seeds—carry toxins that may have been used to poison arrow tips in the past. A new Danish study in the Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports has shown that the "smoking gun" is not the poison itself, but the size of the small arrowheads used to deliver the toxin into the hunted animal. The authors of the latest research examined Danish stone tool technology from the period immediately preceding the arrival of farming in Europe—the Mesolithic.
They argue that the distinctive small size of stone arrow tips from the early Mesolithic period (about 9,000–3,950 B.C.) suggests they were used to hunt large prey with the help of poisons. The poison has long since vanished, leaving only the stone tip. Arrows that do not use poison are typically larger, since they need to damage the animal's flesh.
But poisoned arrows need only wound a prey animal enough to allow the poison to enter the bloodstream. There were several poisonous plants available to hunter-gatherers in early Mesolithic Denmark. These include northern water hemlock, European bird cherry, buttercup and bittersweet nightshade, which have been proposed as possible toxins on arrow points.
In contrast, the authors report that stone arrowheads from the middle and later Mesolithic (about 6,400–3,950 B.C.) are larger and were used to hunt smaller prey. According to the researchers, the sizes of arrowheads used during this period do not indicate poison use. Surprisingly, poison-assisted hunting is widely known from a variety of archaeological and ethnographic contexts.
For example, ricin—which is made from the castor bean plant—has been linked to a 24,000-year-old poison applicator at Border Cave, KwaZulu-Natal in South Africa. The San and Ju|'hoan people of Namibia use beetle larvae, as well as sap from a succulent plant called the Bushman poison (Adenium boehmianum). Many other toxins remain unidentified, despite their use as a hunting aid being well established.
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