Ancient Hunters Didn’t Throw Spears To Kill Mammoths But Rather Used The Tools Like Pikes, Propping Them Up To Impale Charging Animals
In the past, researchers thought ancient hunters threw spears to kill mammoths, but new research has shown that the prehistoric beasts were taken down by pikes instead.
According to the study, the hunters used their spears like pikes, propping them against the ground and angling them upward. The charging animals would be impaled and killed.
The hunting strategy was more effective than spear-throwing, even if the spears were thrown by the strongest hunters. Historical evidence indicated that the pikes were designed to split in two once they hit bone, worsening the already-deep wound and causing fatal injuries.
“This ancient Native American design was an amazing innovation in hunting strategies,” said Scott Byram, the lead author of the study and a research associate with the University of California Berkeley’s Archaeological Research Facility. “This distinctive Indigenous technology is providing a window into hunting and survival techniques used for millennia throughout much of the world.”
The new finding is part of decades-long research into Clovis points, ancient weapon tips that date back about 13,000 years ago. They are named after a small town in New Mexico, where the shaped stones were discovered nearly a century ago.
Across North America, thousands of them have been recovered. They are carved from rocks, such as chert, flint, or jasper, and have scalloped edges and fluted indentations on both sides of their base.
Clovis points are often the only part of a spear that is recovered. Sometimes, the bone shafts at the end of the weapon are found. However, wooden shafts have never been recovered since wood is not preserved quite as well.
Many archaeologists disagree on how the Clovis points were used. Some believe that early Americans mounted the points on wooden shafts to create weapons, but others argue that they were unable to inflict deep, deadly wounds on large animals. Instead, the ancient communities used Clovis points to cut meat from carcasses.
The authors of the new study think the Clovis points were placed on wooden shafts, but hunters wouldn’t waste such valuable tools by throwing them around.
W.Scott McGill – stock.adobe.com – illustrative purposes only
It took a lot of time and effort to find the right rocks, shape them, and collect wooden poles. So, the hunters most likely kept their weapons close and used them as pikes.
Byram and colleagues reconstructed the ancient weapon to test their hypothesis. They made it with a replica Clovis point, a long pine shaft, and a resin cast of a bone shaft. Then, they measured the amount of force it could tolerate.
They found that the weapon could withstand the force of a charging mammoth and more. When it functioned as a pike, it would pierce the animal’s skin and tissues. Eventually, the weapon broke after hitting bone.
The way the spear broke in the experiment suggested that the hunters aimed to inflict a maximum amount of damage.
Bracing the spears against the ground and using a charging animal’s momentum against them was also more effective than throwing the spears.
The study was published in the journal PLOS One.
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