Science / Medicine : Ancient Boomerang Found

What may be the world’s oldest boomerang, carved from a woolly mammoth’s tusk, has been discovered in a 23,000-year-old cave in Poland, scientists reported Wednesday.

But the discoverers are hesitant to try out their find. They don’t want to risk damaging it.

As one archeology expert put it, commenting in the British science journal Nature: “Few scholars would contemplate hurling prehistoric specimens into space to see if they come back.”

The 2-foot 4-inch polished boomerang was unearthed in fragments by scientists from the Polish Academy of Sciences in an archeological site in Oblazowa Park in southern Poland.