New archaeological research demonstrates earliest projectile technology in the tropical rainforests of Sri Lanka
The origins of human innovation have traditionally been sought in the grasslands and coasts of Africa or the temperate environments of Europe. More extreme environments, such as the tropical rainforests of Asia, have been largely overlooked, despite their deep history of human occupation. A new study provides the earliest evidence for bow-and-arrow use1, and perhaps the making of clothes, outside of Africa approximately 48-45,000 years ago -- in the tropics of Sri Lanka.
- 1.
Notches and wear patterns show the points were attached to thin shafts, but they are too short and heavy to have been the tips of blowgun darts. Thus, the researchers conclude, they are the remnants of bow-and-arrow toolkits – the earliest definitive evidence for high-powered projectile hunting in a tropical rainforest environment.
Michelle C. Langley, Noel Amano, Oshan Wedage, Siran Deraniyagala, M.m Pathmalal, Nimal Perera, Nicole Boivin, Michael D. Petraglia and Patrick Roberts. Bows and arrows and complex symbolic displays 48,000 years ago in the South Asian tropics. Science Advances, 2020 DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.aba3831
Archaeologists contend that it was our aptitude for symbolic, technological, and social behaviors that was central to Homo sapiens rapidly expanding across the majority of Earth’s continents during the Late Pleistocene. This expansion included movement into extreme environments and appears to have resulted in the displacement of numerous archaic human populations across the Old World. Tropical rainforests are thought to have been particularly challenging and, until recently, impenetrable by early H. sapiens. Here, we describe evidence for bow-and-arrow hunting toolkits alongside a complex symbolic repertoire from 48,000 years before present at the Sri Lankan site of Fa-Hien Lena—the earliest bow-and-arrow technology outside of Africa. As one of the oldest H. sapiens rainforest sites outside of Africa, this exceptional assemblage provides the first detailed insights into how our species met the extreme adaptive challenges that were encountered in Asia during global expansion.
