THE idea that ancient humans sent spears flying through the air to pin down woolly mammoths might only be that – an idea.
Archaeologists at UC Berkeley believe they’ve discovered just how humans were able to take down 12-ton woolly mammoths 13,000 years ago.
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Humans of the Ice Age may not have thrown spears, nor engaged with a group jabbing effort, or even scavenged wounded animals – be they a woolly mammoth, mastodon, bison or sabre-toothed cat.
Researchers say that humans, instead, may have stuck their spears into the ground at an angle – then lured the ‘megafauna’ beast to charge at them.
The giant creature would have then impaled itself on the spear.
In a new study, researchers say the force of a 12-ton beast in full-charge would have dealt a far more lethal blow to the creature than a prehistoric hunter could on their own.
“The kind of energy that you can generate with the human arm is nothing like the kind of energy generated by a charging animal. It’s an order of magnitude different,” Jun Sunseri, associate professor in UC Berkley’s Department of Anthropology, explained.
“These spears were engineered to do what they’re doing to protect the user.”
The spear tip, called a Clovis point, would have functioned like a modern day hollow-point bullet when the weapon was planted and angled towards prey, according to the study.
Researchers looked at spear-hunting practices across a range of cultures worldwide, but make their suggestions about North America’s ancient Indigenous population.
Depictions of airborne spears taking down a woolly mammoth makes for a good story, said Scott Byram, a research associate with Berkeley’s Archeological Research Facility, and his co-author Sunseri.
But they likely fail to consider the realities of life in the Ice Age, the pair notes.
“Sometimes in archaeology, the pieces just start fitting together like they seem to now with Clovis technology, and this puts pike hunting front and center with extinct megafauna,” Byram, first-author of the study, said.
“It opens up a whole new way of looking at how people lived among these incredible animals during much of human history.”
Suitable rocks for spearheads, such as chert, flint or jasper, are limited to certain areas.
As are the right kind of long, straight pole with which you could fashion a spear.
Each spear would also take a lot of time and effort to build.
It’s possible that prehistoric humans could go hundreds of miles before coming into contact with either essential part.
It’s therefore unlikely, researchers reason, that these ancient humans would throw such a laborious tool at a beast, without knowing whether it would actually land.
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