The boomerang is European, not Australian, study suggests
They are the quintessential hunting weapons of the Australian Outback, long thought to be a unique product of Aboriginal ingenuity.
But now archaeologists have found that boomerangs were being wielded in prehistoric Europe thousands of years earlier than the Antipodean examples.
A mammoth tusk boomerang dating from about 40,000 years ago has been discovered in Oblazowa Cave in southern Poland, the oldest ever found.
The earliest Australian boomerangs found in Wyrie Swamp, South Australia, in 1973 date to about 10,000 years ago.
Rock art paintings from Kimberley in Western Australia suggest the weapons were being used 20,000 years ago, but there is no evidence for their earlier use.
Prof Pawel Valde-Nowak, of the Jagiellonian University in Krakow, said: 'The Oblazowa specimen meets all the parameters of a Queensland-type boomerang used by the Aborigines.
'It is currently the oldest boomerang in the world. It can be cautiously assumed that the boomerang was known in different parts of the world in the past.'
The researchers say the find is unusual because it was widely believed that Aboriginal hunter-gatherers invented the first boomerangs thousands of years ago as toys and weapons for survival in the challenging Australian environment
For Aboriginal communities, boomerangs are as old as time itself, featuring in their 'Dreaming' creation myths when ancestral spirits roamed the Earth.
According to legend, during the Dreamtime, rivers, rock formations and mountains were created when ancestral spirits threw boomerangs and spears into the ground.
The boomerang's ability to return was believed to be a powerful symbol that represented the cyclical nature of time, and they were used to hunt birds, small mammals and fish.
The mammoth tusk boomerang was found in a cave in the western Carpathian Mountains above the Białka river, and radiocarbon dating shows it was made about 42,290 to 39,380 years ago.
No ivory fragments were found at the site, suggesting the boomerang must have been crafted elsewhere and carried to Obłazowa Cave, underscoring its special status, the researchers said. Experimental work has demonstrated its capability to fly.
Prehistoric boomerangs have been found in Europe including a wooden example from Jutland dating from about 7,000 years ago, while in North Africa, hunters are depicted in rock art wielding boomerangs from about 8,500 years ago.
Ivory boomerangs were also found in the tomb of Tutankhamun, which dates from 1,323BC.
Boomerangs are thought to have developed from throwing sticks, the earliest examples of which date from about 300,000 years ago and were found in Germany.
Over time, it is likely that craftsmen realised making the stick curved creates greater lift as it moves through the air, allowing it to fly for longer. Not all boomerangs are designed to return to the thrower.
Although the boomerangs were developed for hunting, over time they became multi-purpose tools, used for butchering animals, digging and scraping hot ashes, and even producing music when struck together.
The authors conclude: 'The dispersed nature of the evidence suggests that while the boomerang was not a ubiquitous tool, its presence across various cultures likely reflects independent innovations rather than direct transmission, demonstrating its adaptability to different environmental and cultural contexts.
'These findings offer valuable insights into early human technological innovation, revealing the creative solutions societies developed to address their needs across time and space.'
The research was published in the journal Plos One.
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The boomerang is European, not Australian, study suggests
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