Researcher from ZooStan Dr. Malvina Baumann contributed to the discovery of the oldest arrowheads known to date in Eurasia, dating back approximately 80,000 years, reported in the journal Plos One. These artifacts were found at a site in Central Asia. Remarkably, they are identical to arrowheads discovered in a much more recent stratigraphic context at a site in the Rhône Valley, France, dating to the very end of the Middle Paleolithic. The latter were attributed to an incursion of Homo sapiens into Neanderthal territory.
Summary:
- Unretouched triangular microlithic projectile points have been identified from their impact traces in the oldest occupation layers of the Obi-Rakhmat site in Uzbekistan, dating to 80,000 years ago. Their size corresponds to small arrowheads.
- These lithic armatures are found alongside much more robust retouched projectile points designed for spears or javelins. This combination has, so far, been observed only in Homo sapiens settlements.
- They are directly comparable to those produced by Homo sapiens during an incursion into Neanderthal territory in the Rhône Valley, 25,000 years later. The lithic projectile micro-points could represent a new marker for tracing the early expansion of Homo sapiens across Eurasia.
While the African origin of Homo sapiens is no longer debated, the ways in which our ancestors initially colonized Western Eurasia over 45,000 years ago remain contentious. The temporal alignment of the earliest European Upper Paleolithic settlements with those in the Levant, which are considered the closest in terms of typology and technology, is still not satisfactory. This is either because the Levantine data comes from old excavations or because it does not fit into the supposed direct lineage. Despite its geographical proximity to Africa, the origins of the Initial Upper Paleolithic in the Levant are themselves uncertain. This is why a Central Asian origin has recently been suggested 1.
Depending on climatic conditions, Central Asia have served as a corridor facilitating movement between the western and eastern parts of the continent or as a refuge zone. The archaeological record in this region is limited but includes several significant Paleolithic sites. One such site is the Obi-Rakhmat rock shelter in Uzbekistan, which exhibits a remarkably consistent lithic industry comprising points, large blades, and bladelets across a stratigraphic sequence spanning over 10 meters, dating from approximately 80,000 to 40,000 years ago. This industry appears to derive from the Levantine Early Middle Paleolithic, although it was initially classified as part of the Initial Upper Paleolithic.
In this context, an international multidisciplinary team has identified tiny, unretouched, triangular projectile points within the lithic debris of the oldest stratigraphic layers. These points were distinguished based on their macroscopic and microscopic impact marks, which were compared to experimental reference data. Due to their small size (less than 2 cm in width and weighing only a few grams), they would have been unsuitable for mounting on heavy shafts. The width of their cutting edges corresponds to the diameter of arrow shafts documented ethnographically for low-poundage bows, consistent with transcultural invariants rooted in physical and ballistic constraints.
The inventory also includes a collection of significantly more robust retouched points — approximately 15 to 20 times heavier and 3 to 4 times thicker — used as projectile heads for spears or javelins. The presence of diverse projectile head types, some of which are microlithic and specifically produced for this purpose, has only been reported at Homo sapiens sites. In contrast, lithic points damaged by use as projectile heads are rare in the Neanderthal record. When present, they tend to be large and do not notably differ in size, manufacture, or type from points used for other activities. This difference in the design of tools and weapons takes on anthropological significance.
The micro-points from Obi-Rakhmat have no known equivalents in the Eurasian Middle Paleolithic, except for identical projectile points found in the Rhône Valley, France, at the Mandrin site, in a layer dating to approximately 54,000 years ago — some ten thousand years before the disappearance of local Neanderthals 2. Notably, a Homo sapiens milk tooth was also recovered from this layer 3.
On either side of the Persian Plateau — recently identified through paleogenomics 4,5 as a population hub where the ancestors of all present-day non-Africans lived before dispersing into Eurasia — Obi-Rakhmat and Mandrin may represent two geographical and temporal milestones within the same process, characterized by the dissemination of a key technological innovation unique to Homo sapiens.
Cited references:
1. Slimak, L. The three waves: Rethinking the structure of the first Upper Paleolithic in Western Eurasia. PLOS ONE 18, e0277444 (2023).
2. Metz, L., Lewis, J. E. & Slimak, L. Bow-and-arrow, technology of the first modern humans in Europe 54,000 years ago at Mandrin, France. Sci. Adv. 9, (2023).
3. Slimak, L. et al. Modern human incursion into Neanderthal territories 54,000 years ago at Mandrin, France. Sci. Adv. 8, eabj9496 (2022).
4. Vallini, L. et al. The Persian plateau served as hub for Homo sapiens after the main out of Africa dispersal. Nat. Commun. 15, 1882 (2024).
5. Mazières, S., Condemi, S., El Nemer, W. & Chiaroni, J. Rapid change in red cell blood group systems after the main Out of Africa of Homo sapiens. Sci. Rep.15, 1597 (2025).
Publication: Plisson H., Kharevich A.V., Kharevich V.M., Chistiakov P.V., Zotkina L.V., Baumann M., Pubert E., Kolobova K.A., Maksudov F.A., Krivoshapkin A.I. (2025) ‒ Arrow heads at Obi-Rakhmat (Uzbekistan) 80 ka ago?, PLOS ONE, 20, 8, p. e0328390. https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0328390