I like that poison in the flute clovis point theory.
I’m sure the nomads learned real quick that a normal spear in the butt of a mammoth can get you killed. Experimenting with poisons eventually led to the fact that you need a lot of poison to take down the big dinner, which lead to the invention of the clovis point with the poison reservior. We’ll probably never know the thought process and progression of inventions that led to the clovis point.
And not just elephants, early man had to clear the caves of giant bears and sloths. Everyone wanted the cave. I can see the poison spear being the necessary weapon for giant bears!
One gram of aconitine i.m. will stop a grizzly bear before he can run 100 yards. Just imagine, the Aleuts killed 40 ton whales with less than that; it just took a few hours.
I read that aconitine is so powerful, handling the roots of monkshood flowers will make your hands go numb as a tiny amount of the poison is absorbed through the skin. BTW, monkshood is common throughout the entire Northern Hemisphere in arctic and alpine regions. So it would have been available in Asia and Europe as well.
As the Aleuts found, the problem with using these poisons is that entire villages sometimes got sick from eating the whale meat. That’s why most Indians did not use poison arrows to kill deer, elk, etc. In South America the Indians had curare which is destroyed by cooking making the meat safe to eat. Same with poison arrow frogs for Central Americans.
How did our ancestors discover edible plants from among the millions of species? Imagine the shaman, high on mushrooms, telling Oog, his least favorite relative, “Oog, I had a dream. You must dig up that plant, cook it, and eat the roots.” After Oog’s unfortunate demise, the shaman tells the people, “Oog angered the gods”.