Archaeologists have identified whale-bone harpoons dating back 5,000 years in southern Brazil, offering new evidence that Indigenous communities hunted massive marine animals long before the invention of metal tools or advanced boats. The findings suggest these early populations crafted harpoons from whale bones, using them to hunt species including humpbacks and blue whales. Among them were whale bones buried near human remains, largely overlooked for decades. When museum staff brought out boxes containing the whale bones, archaeologist André Carlo Colonese immediately recognized their importance. She said the rise in recent sightings in southern Brazil may reflect a long-term recolonization process and emphasized that understanding past whale distribution is critical to ongoing conservation.