80,000-year-old ancient weapon shocks the scientific world

The discovery of a stone point in Uzbekistan believed to be the oldest arrowhead on the planet, likely made by Neanderthals, changes understanding of evolution.

A new study suggests that small stone artifacts discovered at the Obi-Rakhmat site in Uzbekistan may be the oldest known arrowheads. Photo: Plisson et al., PLOS One, CC BY 4.0.

Previous excavations at the site have found many prehistoric tools, including thin and wide blades, small blades... However, the new artifacts - small triangular points, known as "microliths" - were missed in previous surveys because they were broken. Photo: Plisson et al., PLOS One.

In a study published in the journal PLOS One, the researchers said the artifacts were too narrow to be attached to anything other than the shaft of an arrow. Photo: PLOS One (2025). DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0328390.

Study co -author Hugues Plisson from the University of Bordeaux (France) said that these small stone points showed the same level of damage as used arrowheads. Photo: PLOS One (2025). DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0328390.

The team says the tiny arrowheads are around 80,000 years old, making them possibly the oldest arrowheads in the world – around 6,000 years older than the 74,000-year-old artifacts previously unearthed in Ethiopia. Photo: PLOS One (2025). DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0328390.

Christian Tryon, a paleolithic archaeologist at the University of Connecticut who was not involved in the study, said the new findings suggest that early sophisticated weapons and hunting technologies were more widely distributed geographically and earlier than previously thought. However, it is unclear which species created them. Photo: PLOS One.

Previously, during an excavation at this site in 2003, experts discovered 6 teeth and 121 skull fragments of a child aged 9-12. Although the teeth resembled those of a Neanderthal, the skull features made scientists suspect that the child was a hybrid between Homo sapiens and a Neanderthal or Denisovan. Photo: biorxiv.org.

Plisson said that Central Asia was home to Neanderthals when the oldest arrowheads were made at Obi-Rakhmat. Therefore, the artifacts found at Obi-Rakhmat were likely made by Neanderthals for hunting. Photo: biorxiv.org.

Readers are invited to watch the video : Behind the success of scientists. Source: VTV24.

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