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Scientists Uncover Ancient Ice Age Americans' Secret to Survival: Mammoths
SciTechDaily ^ | December 17, 2024 | University of Alaska Fairbanks

Posted on 12/18/2024 6:06:04 AM PST by SunkenCiv

Researchers found direct evidence that Clovis people relied heavily on mammoths for food, using isotopic analysis to confirm 40% of a Clovis mother's diet came from mammoths. The study highlights how hunting large animals supported the Clovis people's mobility and rapid spread, while also contributing to the extinction of Ice Age megafauna...

The study, featured on the Dec. 4 cover of the journal Science Advances, employed stable isotope analysis to reconstruct the diet of the mother of an infant found at a 13,000-year-old Clovis burial site in Montana. Previously, researchers inferred prehistoric diets primarily through indirect evidence, such as stone tools or the preserved remains of prey animals...

"What's striking to me is that this confirms a lot of data from other sites. For example, the animal parts left at Clovis sites are dominated by megafauna, and the projectile points are large, affixed to darts, which were efficient distance weapons," said co-lead author Ben Potter, an archaeology professor at the University of Alaska Fairbanks...

Hunting mammoths provided a flexible way of life, Potter said. It allowed the Clovis people to move into new areas without having to rely on smaller, localized game, which could vary significantly from one region to the next.

(Excerpt) Read more at scitechdaily.com ...


TOPICS: History; Science; Travel
KEYWORDS: ancientautopsies; catastrophism; clovis; clovisimpact; dietandcuisine; godsgravesglyphs; huntergatherers; isotopeanalysis; knapper; knappers; knapping; mammoth; mammoths; mastodon; mastodons; montana
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To: MtnClimber

It really takes a pair to poke an elephant with that thing.

Especially since there were no hospitals back then.


21 posted on 12/18/2024 6:38:20 AM PST by Sarcazmo (I live by the Golden Rule. As applied by others; I'm not selfish.)
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To: MtnClimber

That is beautiful, look at that perfect flute... That is hard to do.

https://phys.org/news/2017-04-archaeologist-fluting-ancient-stone-weaponry.html


22 posted on 12/18/2024 6:38:34 AM PST by Openurmind
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To: Qwapisking

:^) Excavating a fossil mammoth is a grueling tusk.


23 posted on 12/18/2024 6:40:13 AM PST by SunkenCiv (Putin should skip ahead to where he kills himself in the bunker.)
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To: SunkenCiv
And this is why we have no woolly mammoths... We ate them all. I imagine that they must have been pretty tasty too... Mmm... Mammoths!


24 posted on 12/18/2024 6:41:18 AM PST by jerod (Nazis were essentially Socialist in Hugo Boss uniforms... Get over it!)
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To: Wuli; Uncle Miltie

That’ll l’arn ‘em. Still beats singin’ that song. :^)


25 posted on 12/18/2024 6:41:25 AM PST by SunkenCiv (Putin should skip ahead to where he kills himself in the bunker.)
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To: jerod

The first hunters to spot one and suggest the idea heard the warning of their tribal elder, “Watch it now, watch it. They are bullies. Woolly bullies.”


26 posted on 12/18/2024 6:43:07 AM PST by SunkenCiv (Putin should skip ahead to where he kills himself in the bunker.)
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To: Openurmind

That is a great Clovis example. I have six Clovis points. I need to frame them. I have a large framed collection of Folsom points which look like the Clovis points, but without the fluting.


27 posted on 12/18/2024 6:46:21 AM PST by MtnClimber (For photos of scenery, wildlife and climbing, click on my screen name for my FR home page.)
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To: MtnClimber

Beautiful work. I can’t remember who the knapper is, but he’ll find it.


28 posted on 12/18/2024 6:47:19 AM PST by SunkenCiv (Putin should skip ahead to where he kills himself in the bunker.)
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To: SunkenCiv; Red Badger; Rennes Templar; MtnClimber
Hunting mammoths provided a flexible way of life, Potter said. It allowed the Clovis people to move into new areas...

Makes sense. If anyone had the right key, it was the Clavis people.

29 posted on 12/18/2024 6:53:00 AM PST by Ezekiel (🆘️ "Come fly with US". 🔴 Ingenuity -- because the Son of David begins with MARS ♂️, aka every man)
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To: Red Badger

For some years now, Texas Road Kill Chili has been my entry in chili cookoffs. I’ve thought about switching to Endangered Species Chili. Know where I can get mammoth?

I’d prefer fresh, but the quick frozen ones that come out of the tundra sometimes would probably work for chili. Just throw in more jalapenos to mask the gaminess.


30 posted on 12/18/2024 6:53:30 AM PST by sphinx
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To: SunkenCiv; MtnClimber

Very cool specimen. It is hard to make a Flute that long without ending up with a step or hinge. I have often wondered what exact method they did indeed use since we can only guess and derive our own methods.


31 posted on 12/18/2024 7:04:09 AM PST by Openurmind
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To: SunkenCiv

“isotopic analysis”

I missed finding out exactly what the definition of that was in my science class in grade school.


32 posted on 12/18/2024 7:10:04 AM PST by antidemoncrat ( )
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To: Ezekiel

Also, they were good at towing. In fact, Leave it to Beaver was based on a real family, descended from ice age hunters.


33 posted on 12/18/2024 7:15:05 AM PST by SunkenCiv (Putin should skip ahead to where he kills himself in the bunker.)
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To: SunkenCiv

The study highlights how hunting large animals supported the Clovis people’s mobility and rapid spread, while also contributing to the extinction of Ice Age megafauna...

No. The event in 10900 BC wiped out the megafauna worldwide over night, and incidentally wiped out the Clovis people, to boot.


34 posted on 12/18/2024 7:22:16 AM PST by PIF (They came for me and mine ... now its your turn)
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To: SunkenCiv
They were certainly very Cleaver!
35 posted on 12/18/2024 7:22:35 AM PST by Ezekiel (🆘️ "Come fly with US". 🔴 Ingenuity -- because the Son of David begins with MARS ♂️, aka every man)
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To: sphinx

Whale


36 posted on 12/18/2024 7:23:03 AM PST by Cold Heart
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To: Openurmind

Sorry, the points that look like the clovis, but without the flute are Dalton points. The Folsom points have the flute for the length of the point.


37 posted on 12/18/2024 7:23:50 AM PST by MtnClimber (For photos of scenery, wildlife and climbing, click on my screen name for my FR home page.)
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To: Uncle Miltie

Mammoths were hunted to extinction.


No they were not. All megafauna, including mammoths, were wiped out in an Event in 10,900 BC all over the world.


38 posted on 12/18/2024 7:24:40 AM PST by PIF (They came for me and mine ... now its your turn)
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To: Sarcazmo

I saw a documentary ... he cut open a mammoth

You mean they were filming scenes like that 11,000 years ago?


39 posted on 12/18/2024 7:27:32 AM PST by PIF (They came for me and mine ... now its your turn)
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To: PIF

The extinction of mammoths

nationalgeographic.com+3
was likely caused by a combination of factors:

Climate change: As the Pleistocene gave way to the Holocene, the climate became warmer and wetter, reducing the mammoth’s habitats.

Human impact: Fire, development of tools, and hunting by humans likely played a role.

Genetic changes: The mammoth population gradually lost harmful genetic mutations, but some other random event sealed their fate.


40 posted on 12/18/2024 7:29:39 AM PST by Uncle Miltie ("Israel will just have to ... kill more Christians” - FR's own "nitzy")
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