Oldest Weapons Ever Discovered in America Found in Central Texas

During a dig at the Debra L. Friedkin archaeological site in central Texas, ancient weapons were uncovered which might give historians details into America’s distant past. Just feet below the surface, the tools were discovered by researchers with Texas A&M University on a dig near Buttermilk Creek, which archaeologists have been searching through for more than a decade.

Photo: Facebook/Jeff Roberts

Professor of Anthropology and Director of the Center for the Study of the First Americans at Texas A&M, Michael Waters has described the weapons in a recently published study. Featured in the most recent issue of Science Advances, the study reports how the team found three- to four-inch weapons, which include chert spear points, located beneath sediment which they claim to be 15.5K years in age at the least. In a statement released on Wednesday, October 24, Waters said, “The discovery is significant because almost all pre-Clovis sites have stone tools, but spear points have yet to be found. These points were found under a layer with Clovis and Folsom projectile points.” He also said that “Clovis” refers to tools which would have been used by people 13K years ago. “The dream has always been to find diagnostic artifacts — such as projectile points — that can be recognized as older than Clovis and this is what we have at the Friedkin site,” he explained.

Photo: National Park Service

Waters believes the allegedly 15,000-year-old tools were used as weapons to hunt large animals. This finding could support the theory that the first American settlers were here earlier than historians had originally thought, however, he admits there’s still a considerable amount of research yet to be completed to gain more knowledge and awareness of those who traveled about North America all those years ago. “The findings expand our understanding of the earliest people to explore and settle North America. The peopling of the Americas during the end of the last Ice Age was a complex process and this complexity is seen in their genetic record. Now we are starting to see this complexity mirrored in the archaeological record,” he explained.