This article has been reviewed according to Science X's editorial process and policies. Editors have highlighted the following attributes while ensuring the content's credibility: For decades, archaeologists have been uncovering rare and mysterious incised obsidian arrowheads across Neolithic Central Anatolia, each one bearing a unique design etched into its glassy black surface nearly 9,000 years ago. Now archaeologists have discovered 11 new pieces at Tepecik-Çiftlik in Cappadocia, bringing the grand total up to 54.
According to the study published in PLOS One, the unique arrowheads are found nowhere else on Earth, and despite spanning more than a thousand years of use, the mystery of their meaning has yet to be solved. For the researchers behind the discovery, having spent years looking, the moment of discovery was exciting. "We were very happy," said study author Alice Vinet from Aix Marseille Université.
"Although not completely surprised, as one incised arrowhead had already been found a few years earlier by our colleague S. Balci." Tepecik-Çiftlik village is located on the Melendiz plain; people lived there throughout the Late Neolithic between around 7100 and 5800 BC, herding, farming, and occasionally hunting. The site is perfectly situated between two of the region's largest obsidian sources, a volcanic glass prized by cultures around the world for its sharp edge and glossy beauty.
The site is littered with obsidian arrowheads, but of the 740 in existence until recently, only one carefully incised piece was known. "We knew that our colleague S. Balci had found one incised arrowhead several years earlier," Vinet said, explaining that the team sifted through every point in hopes that one of the black surfaces would reveal another incised example.
Until 2022, none were found; then all at once they came to light. "Once we knew exactly what to look for, we were able to recognize the others," Vinet explained. The purpose of the marks, however, remains unknown; the leading explanation dates to the '80s, when archaeologist Kathryn Ataman studied 31 arrowheads from a nearby site.
She proposed they were hunters' marks, a way to sign an arrow so you could claim the animal it killed. The problem was, the incised arrowheads were too rare and too unique for this theory to make sense. Especially since most obsidian arrowheads never received a mark at all.
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