The institute's under-water archaeology group found a pointed wooden object at the river-bank construction site in Sinja Gorica in September 2008.
Due to its form, the object was compared to Szeletian stone spear tips, typical for central Europe between 50 and 35 thousand BC. The dating was later confirmed by radiometric research in a laboratory at Beta Analytic in Miami and the Oxford Research Laboratory for Archaeology.
The spear tip is made of yew wood, which was the most appropriate material for the wooden parts of the hunting equipment, and a resin coating is preserved on one of its sides. Currently available data shows this it the first finding of its kind, ZVKDS wrote.
The presence of Paleolithic hunters in the area has so far been proven by individual findings of stone tools and human-modified animal bones in the northern parts of the wetlands, the press release reads.