What Was in the Ancient Weapon Stash Found in West Texas?

Picture this: You're an indigenous hunter who decides to rest inside of a cave after taking down a great beast. You realize your tools need some tending to, and you light a fire to take a break. Would you ever believe that thousands of years later your campsite would be found untouched?

This was the reality for one lucky soul (I'm going to call him 'Frank') after this exact setup was discovered in a west Texas cave.

Unburying History in Texas

Thanks to the Center for Big Bend Studies, Frank's spot where he took a break was found fully intact inside that very cave.

The cave system is inside San Esteban Shelter, just south of Marfa in west Texas.

The Texas Parks and Wildlife Department is even calling this discovery "potentially the oldest example of an intact full weapon system in North America."

So, what was actually found? Oh, just some old sticks and rocks... that were used for hunting and can tell us so much about the practices and weapon-building from that time!

It's believed that these hunting tools were left in the cave nearly 6,000 years ago.

Frank's Journey in West Texas

Frank the hunter stopped in this small cave thousands of years ago to rest, but also to go through his tools and fix his equipment a little bit. We know this because the pieces he discarded were just that: pieces to a complete set.

The researchers who discovered the setup found items that make up a primitive hunting projectile, similar to a dart that your throw. They also found a boomerang in Frank's belongings.

Boomerangs back then were more designed to fly straight at a target fast enough to kill or immobilize them. They weren't like the fun ones we have now as toys that are impossible to master.

What did Researchers Actually Find?

According to the Parks and Wildlife Department, researchers at Big Bend National Park discovered the following:

• Four dart nock ends - pieces of a projectile device for hunting
• A boomerang
• Six stone-tipped foreshafts - also parts of a projectile
• Four hardwood foreshafts -  you guessed it: parts of a projectile weapon
• Partial atlatl - AKA 'spear-thrower'

Human feces were also discovered next to a folded pronghorn hide. I'm not making accusations, but just be thankful we make our own toilet paper nowadays.