An excavation team recently discovered an ancient trove of weapons in a remote cave system in Texas’ Big Bend National Park. Bryon Schroeder, director of the Center for Big Bend Studies, said in an interview with Texas Parks and Wildlife Magazine that the weapons found inside the cave system of the San Esteban Rockshelter in Big Bend, south of Marfa, could end up being a “pretty monumental” discovery that could eventually help our modern understanding of Big Bend’s early humans.
“A person came to the back of the cave and went through their hunting gear piece by piece: ‘This is good. This is not good. I need to remake this leather pouch a little bit.’ And then went on their way,” Schroeder said. “But that one small act is going to have profound implications in understanding a wide range of topics, including the environment.”
Texas Parks & Wildlife Magazine shared a photo of the cave on Facebook. “Deep inside a remote cave in Big Bend, archeologists have uncovered a pristine hunting kit — potentially the oldest intact weapon system in North America,” the post reads. “This discovery offers a rare glimpse into the lives of ancient hunters, revealing tools, weapons, and even a folded pronghorn hide left untouched for thousands of years.”
It adds, “Each artifact tells a story of survival, craftsmanship, and the deep connect between humans and the land.”
What was discovered?
The hunting kit contained tools such as four dart nock ends that fit against an ancient spear-throwing device called an atlatl; a straight flying boomerang; six stone-tipped foreshafts to connect knapped stone points to the atlatl; four hardwood foreshafts, which may have been used to deliver poison; as well as a partial atlatl.
“The dart foreshafts fit into sockets or sleeves in the end of a dart main shaft,” Louie Bond of TPWD Magazine wrote. “The nock ends of the darts fit against the atlatl spur; the dart flexes when thrown to maintain straight flight.”
None of the components are complete. However, all the pieces of the atlatl were found. Devin Pettigrew, a weapons expert and CBBS assistant professor, revealed that they do not have all the socket ends needed to understand how the foreshafts of the weapon would have fit into the main shafts. “We’re also missing the proximal (handle) end of the atlatl, but we know enough about this type to reconstruct what it may have looked like,” Pettigrew said.
Besides the hunting kit, human feces, and a folded, tanned pronghorn hide with hair still intact, were also found. The perimeter of the hide contained spaces holes to tie to a framer for softening. This was a common practice among historic Plains groups. “It’s akin to holding dish gloves that somebody put over the sink after doing the dishes,” Schroeder said. “Somebody folded that hide up and sat right on top of this rock. And nobody touched it for 6,000 years.”
In Indigenous American cultures, caves were special places where hunted prey would often be reincarnated, Pettigrew said. He added that it remains unclear if the deposit of the broken components served a symbolic or spiritual purpose as “interpretations like this, based on more recent cultures, are more difficult the further back in time you go.”
Schroeder said that wood can be used to reconstruct the environment, which could help them learn and understand more. The new knowledge can also be applied to other archaeological sites in Big Bend.
