In 2003, fossil hunter Kim Holt was walking along the Arkansas River near Tulsa when something unusual caught his eye; a massive, ancient bison skull half-buried in the earth. At first, it looked like just another prehistoric find.
Then he saw it.
A stone spearpoint still embedded deep inside the skull.
Archaeologists later confirmed the bison lived more than 5,100 years ago, during the Archaic Period — long before the pyramids rose in Egypt. This was a world where Native American hunter-gatherers moved across the plains of what is now Oklahoma.
They had no metal or horses, just crafting skills in making stone tools, and a considerable amount of courage.
To bring down an animal weighing more than 2,000 pounds, hunters used atlatls — spear-throwers capable of launching a weapon with incredible speed and force. With a perfect throw a hunter could take down such a beast. In this case, the spearpoint remained wedged in its skull for five millennia.