7,000 Year Old 'Monumental' Hunting Kit Found in Texas

The artifacts were discovered in a cave and may be the oldest ever found in North America.

Near present-day Marfa, Texas, a prehistoric hunter once took shelter in a cave. The person built a fire and went through their hunting tools, leaving behind the ones that had broken. Then left. The tools stayed in that cave, largely undisturbed, for thousands of years, until researchers recently dug them up.

Archaeologists have pieced together this likely scenario based on weapons, preserved human waste and the remains of a small fire discovered over the past several years in a West Texas cave. As they dug deeper and deeper, they uncovered more artifacts: a folded animal hide, wooden darts with stone tips, a boomerang, pieces of a spear-throwing tool and wooden shafts thought to be used for delivering poison. The tool kit may be the oldest intact weapon system found in North America.

The oldest item found so far, a spear-thrower called an atlatl, was dated to almost 7,000 years old - in a 2023 paper, the researchers suggested it was the oldest one found on the continent. The hide, which belonged to an antelope-like animal called a pronghorn, still had intact hair of its original color, preserved over thousands of years.

Preserved wood tools are exceedingly rare, since they tend to decay quickly. Usually, only stone tools are left for archaeologists to find, so the intact organic material is remarkable.

There is still work to be done on the artifacts, and the research team has yet to publish their findings in full. They are still trying to determine whether all the objects found belonged to the same kit, or if they originated from separate periods. Researchers are also working with Indigenous groups to gain approval to conduct tests on the human waste found near the kit, which can provide insight into the diet and DNA of early humans.

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