Poison‑Arrow Cognition at 60,000 Years

Chemical residues on Pleistocene arrow tips from Umhlatuzana indicate hunters were applying plant poisons ~60 kya. Poisoned‑projectile use requires multi‑step planning, chemistry knowledge, and transmission of technique, so it is a practical marker for advanced causal reasoning and cooperative hunting well before the mid‑Holocene dates usually cited. — Shifting the evidence for poisoned hunting technology back tens of thousands of years changes timelines for cognitive and cultural milestones and reframes policy‑relevant debates about the origins of human cooperation, language, and technology.