COLUMBUS, OHIO—Cosmos Magazine reports that 8,000-year-old fluted arrowheads have been uncovered in Yemen and in Oman. Chipping off flakes from a stone to shape it is a highly skilled process that had been previously thought to be limited to toolmakers who lived in North America between 13,000 and 10,000 years ago. In North America, such fluting is usually found near the base of a point, and is thought to have facilitated attaching it to an arrow or spear shaft with string. In contrast, fluting has been found near the tip on points from southern Arabia. “Of course, we can’t say for sure, but we think this was a way for skilled toolmakers to signal something to others, perhaps that one is a good hunter… or dexterous with one’s hands,” said Joy McCorriston of Ohio State University. Michael Petraglia of the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History added that the discovery of fluted points in southern Arabia serves as an example of “independent invention” on different continents. Read the original scholarly article about this research in PLOS ONE. For more, go to "First Americans."
