A Man and a Boomerang

Boomerangs are often associated with Australia’s Aboriginals, but a new study has suggested that the curved, multi-purpose tool was also used by early humans in Europe tens of thousands of years ago. 

Archeologists recently dated a remarkable boomerang from a Polish cave to at least 40,000 years ago, making it the oldest known boomerang in the world, and one that offers a rare glimpse into the early ingenuity of Homo sapiens. 

The artifact – carved from mammoth ivory – was first discovered in 1985 in Obłazowa Cave in southern Poland. While earlier estimates had placed its age around 30,000 years old, new radiocarbon analysis of nearby human and animal bones showed that it was crafted between 42,000 and 39,000 years ago. 

“It’s the oldest boomerang in the world, and the only one in the world made (in) this shape and (to be) this long to be found in Poland,” study author Sahra Talamo told the BBC. 

Talamo and her team described it as a crescent-shaped object nearly 28 inches in length. They added that it was not the returning type of boomerang and instead, it was likely used for hunting – or perhaps it held cultural or artistic significance.  

“The ivory object has all the features of boomerangs used by Aborigines in Queensland today,” Paweł Valde-Nowak, another author and archeologist at Poland’s Jagiellonian University, told Live Science. “Its arched shape, flat-convex cross-section, and dimensions match the Queensland boomerangs that do not return to the thrower.” 

The researchers said the finding offers a “remarkable insight” about the precision and expertise of early humans in shaping tools tens of thousands of years ago. 

While throwing sticks have been found outside of Australia – such as a 300,000-year-old example from northern Germany – the Obłazowa boomerang stands out not only because of its age but also because it reflects a level of precision and cultural sophistication that was previously not well-documented in this region. 

“In my opinion, this is absolutely clear evidence of behaviors unknown to us, practices of early Homo sapiens, which contrast sharply with everything we found in the deeper cultural layers in Obłazowa, layers left by Neanderthals,” Valde-Nowak told Live Science.