Today, the Arabian Peninsula is mostly a desert. But things were very different hundreds of thousands of years ago. In fact, the landscape supported an ancient community of talented crafters who possibly made poisonous weapons.

An international team of scientists studied traces of human occupation at Uruq Aljelibah, a Middle Paleolithic site around 125,000 years old. Their findings , published today in Science, describe a remarkably well-preserved record of how prehistoric humans and wildlife coexisted around an ancient freshwater lake, located in what is now Saudi Arabia. The excavations turned up roughly 5,000 stone artifacts and fossil remains. One standout discovery was a carefully shaped stone point with chemical traces from poisonous plants—hinting at the community’s crafting skills.…