“Not being sarcastic - but skeptical. Please inform on the primitive weapons that were used to kill elephants.”
It is a scientifically proven fact that “primitive” man hunted and killed all sorts of large animals, including all species of elephants (african/indian, mastodon, mammoth, etc.), bison (which were up to twice as big as modern bison), whales of all kinds, “cave” bears and lions, etc.
There are abundant documented instances of such kills in the anthropological literature.
Flint-tipped spears and lances are very effective killing tools, as is the atl-atl, and the bow-arrow when it came along. These people also used cliffs, jumps, and other traps to outright kill or confine their prey prior to killing them.
Don’t write off the “primitive” tool kit that ancient men used. It was very efficient and effective. And don’t forget that they were as smart as we are (and smarter than most modern people, in view). The human brain is the most effective killing tool around.
I agree with you.
Where to begin on this “study”?
Let's start with the end of the Ice Age. Well, there isn't one. We're still in it. The last glaciation maximum ended, but the world is STILL in the Ice Age. There have been hundreds of glaciation maximums, all followed by sudden, massive warming, and the various pachyderms and mega fauna survived them all. So just what so different about this last one, that whole ecologies of large animals died out so thoroughly—and where they DID NOT die out?
Yep. Mankind. Everywhere mankind appeared, the mega fauna did too. Except for Africa and South Asia. Aborigines hit Australia 50-45,000 years ago, a land of enormous wombats big as hippos, goanna’s the size of dinosaurs, giant kangaroos everywhere. All died out in the first 5,000 years of man's arrival.
Mankind arrives in Northern Europe around 20-15,000 years ago; same thing. Siberia, also, same time frame, same demise of the Mammoth, Woolly Rhino, etc. Mankind arrives in the Americas a few millennium later, then within a few centuries, the mammoth dies out, along with the American horse, camel, giant ground sloth, giant beaver, giant bison, mastodon, short-faced bear, American lion, saber tooth, all now extinct.
And once again I remind you, the glaciers came and went hundreds of times, and all these creatures survived hundreds of cooling and warmings just fine. So what really happened?
Homo Sapiens Sapiens, the worlds premier badass!
Thank y’all for the input. Still having trouble with early man developing materials to build traps and plan hunting expeditions for large, threatening mammoths. Perhaps they did chase them over cliffs or built corrals out of fallen trees and vines. I just don’t see them as having manufactured rope, metal and sufficient numbers to accomplish ‘hunting trips’. More like accidental luck when the mammoths succumbed to natural causes, accidents or other predatory animals. Also must have taken a lot of flint tools to butcher the carcasses. Much more practical to catch small critters.
Still a good discussion. Thx. Now I’ll go to the library;)