Posted on 01/26/2011 7:57:13 AM PST by Renfield
Mexican archaeologists found three projectile points from the Clovis culture, associated with remains of a Gomphotheres – a now extinct type of elephant - dating back at least 12,000 years, in northern Sonora. The find is of major importance, as this is the first evidence in North America that this animal was contemporary with early humans.
The location and date of these remains opens the possibility that in North America the Gomphotheres was still alive, in contrast with previous theories that suggest it had disappeared 30,000 years previously.
The finds were made in early January at the site of ‘World’s End’, in Sonora, Mexico, by researchers at the National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH), during a third season of excavations at a location that has been identified as an area for hunting and butchering of animals of the Pleistocene, discovered in 2007.
This recent discovery, completes a “scene” in which archaeologists can recognise a group of Clovis people hunting Proboscidean (ancestors of the elephant). This is an unprecedented find in Mexico as the first projectile points were found among the bones of the megafauna.
“It is very important because it is the first archaeological site of the Clovis culture to be associated with the remains of Gomphotheres whose remains have now been dated to between 11,600 and 10,600 years.” said Guadalupe Sanchez, archaeologist, director of the Research Project End of the World.
The discovery occurred in the same archaeological context where articulated bones from Gomphotheres and various stone tools, including a Clovis point quartz crystal were recovered in 2008.
Clovis people are known as Mammoth hunters, one of the three species of Proboscidea that inhabited America, the other two being the Mastodon and Gomphotheres . Of the three species, the latter is the smallest and oldest in the Americas.
The Gomphotheres had only been found previously in association with man in South America, while in Costa Rica (Central America), the evidence of association between humans is limited to the behemoth Proboscidean and the Mammoth.
INAH archaeologist Natalia Martinez, who led the research in the field, explained that the Clovis points were found in a place called Town 1 (the remnant of a marsh deposits of Pleistocene eras Terminal / Early Holocene), at a depth of 1.5 metres.
These ancient stone artefacts that were produced by the Clovis to hunt large animals, were located a few inches below Gomphotheres bones, discovered in the two previous excavation seasons in the winter of 2007 and autumn 2008 as part of the research project jointly developed the INAH, the University of Arizona and National Geographic Society.
The projectile points are made of flint – two of the points are complete and the other is only the tip of the projectile.
Sanchez comments that, “This perfectly recreates the scene of the hunt, with the tip left at the scene of the attack in the butchered carcass.
The previous Clovis material was too small and fragmented to prove the animals were being hunted, but this find confirms they were. The points are similar to ones found in Rio San Pedro in Arizona, dated to the same time period.
“The C14 sample taken was very small and so the dating error ranges from plus or minus 500 years, which gives an approximate age of 10,700 years, coinciding with the Clovis occupation America” said Sanchez.
Besides finding these spear points, Sanchez said that some 500 metres from the site they found a Clovis camp with series of objects including flints and blades.
I would want something much faster acting than aconitine if I was going to put a spear into a giant cave bear even if it meant the meat would be poison. I want his cave and I don’t want him chasing me around after the spear incident.
Is there a fast poison incident to the midwest US? I don’t remember the native north americans using poisonous arrows like the central and south americans did.
Nicotine was used by some North American tribes as arrow poison. Don’t know of anything faster than aconitine outside of the tropics.
One simply needs to insure being 101 yards away at the time.
FYI: http://www.vincelewis.net/monkshood.html
This page doesn’t make monkshood sound that effective as a hunting tool.
Never did a web search on the plant.
My reference was a book on the Aleuts which provided a history of their using aconitine to kill whales before European contact. IIRC, the natives in Alaska sometimes used the poison on brown bears.
Most poisons are much faster and much lower doses are needed if introduced directly into the bloodstream.
I, of course, am not a direct source. I only know what I have read.
BTW, I have read over 10,000 books in my lifetime. Reading is a compulsion with me since childhood.
Impressive. Do you speed read or are you very old?
Both.
When I was younger I read at least one book per day.
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