Archaeologists Discover Roman-Era Weapon, Oldest on Record

Thanks to radiocarbon dating, archaeologists have finally been able to date an ancient boomerang first found 40 years ago.

The boomerang was discovered in 1985 in the Obłazowa Cave within Poland’s limestone cliffs. It was crafted from a woolly mammoth’s tusk and was initially believed to be about 18,000 years old, making it the oldest boomerang ever found on record. But a new study published in PLOS ONE has revealed some surprising information.

By using an advanced technique known as Bayesian modeling, Sahra Talamo and her international team of researchers have found that the boomerang likely originated between 42,000 and 39,000 years ago. They determined the date by analyzing the indirect dating of human and animal remains discovered near the boomerang’s location.

This dating would make the boomerang older than agriculture itself, having been crafted long before the final peak of the Ice Age. During this time, anatomically modern humans still co-mingled with Neanderthals and were only just starting to develop their own technology. "It's the world's oldest boomerang and the world's only one of this shape and length to be discovered in Poland," Talamo told the BBC.

Due to the boomerang’s shape and construction, some questions remain as to whether it was crafted as a weapon or a toy. Some believe it could have been used as both. The shape would have allowed the boomerang to sail far, but it’s a “non-returning” device. Talamo believes that its deliberate construction, as well as fox-tooth pendants adorning the outside, indicate that the boomerang may have had a ceremonial purpose, a hypothesis backed up by its specific burial location. "These are totally clear indicators of behaviors we're unfamiliar with… that are so different from everything we saw in the deeper, Neanderthal-left cultural layers in Obłazowa," co-author Paweł Valde-Nowak told Live Science.

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