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Ancient Siberians may have rarely hunted mammoths
Science News ^ | Wednesday, June 12, 2013 | Bruce Bower

Posted on 06/15/2013 9:54:20 AM PDT by SunkenCiv

Contrary to their hunting reputation, Stone Age Siberians killed mammoths only every few years when they needed tusks for toolmaking, a new study finds.

People living between roughly 33,500 and 31,500 years ago hunted the animals mainly for ivory, say paleontologist Pavel Nikolskiy and archaeologist Vladimir Pitulko of the Russian Academy of Sciences. Hunting could not have driven mammoths to extinction, the researchers report June 5 in the Journal of Archaeological Science.

On frigid tundra with few trees, mammoth tusks substituted for wood as a raw material for tools, they propose. Siberian people ate mammoth meat after hunts, but food was not their primary goal.

Several European and North American sites have yielded single mammoth carcasses lying amid stone tools. Such finds could reflect either hunting or scavenging. Finds at Siberia’s Yana archeological site provide an unprecedented window on the hunting and killing of mammoths over a long time period, says archaeologist John Hoffecker of the University of Colorado Boulder.

Mammoth bones appear in sufficient numbers at some sites in Europe to suggest that hunters there did seek more than ivory, says archaeologist Jiri Svoboda of Masaryk University in Brno, Czech Republic. Whatever happened at Yana, many groups were probably interested in obtaining mammoth meat, fat, bones, tusks and skin, Svoboda says.

(Excerpt) Read more at sciencenews.org ...


TOPICS: History; Science; Travel
KEYWORDS: denisovans; dietandcuisine; godsgravesglyphs; mammoth; mammoths; multiregionalism; neandertal; neandertals; neanderthal; neanderthals; siberia
Excavated mammoth bones from Siberia’s Yana archaeological site suggest that people hunted mammoths mainly for ivory, which they used to make tools. [Stanislav Remezov]

Excavated mammoth bones from Siberia’s Yana archaeological site suggest that people hunted mammoths mainly for ivory, which they used to make tools. [Stanislav Remezov]

1 posted on 06/15/2013 9:54:21 AM PDT by SunkenCiv
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To: StayAt HomeMother; Ernest_at_the_Beach; decimon; 1010RD; 21twelve; 24Karet; 2ndDivisionVet; ...

 GGG managers are SunkenCiv, StayAt HomeMother & Ernest_at_the_Beach
To all -- please ping me to other topics which are appropriate for the GGG list.


2 posted on 06/15/2013 9:55:09 AM PDT by SunkenCiv (McCain or Romney would have been worse, if you're a dumb ass.)
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To: SunkenCiv

Put yourself in their shoes. No gun. Perhaps some arrows and spears, taking on a Mammoth. If given a choice....I’d pick rabbits, fish, and deer. The last thing on my mind would be spending a Friday afternoon hunting up a herd of the woolly beasts.


3 posted on 06/15/2013 10:00:50 AM PDT by pepsionice
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To: SunkenCiv

Let’s see, I’m a paleolithic Siberian male with stone tools. I’m about 5’4” and weigh about 130 lbs. There’s a rabbit over there, or 2000 lb mammoth over here. Which shall I hunt? Decisions, decisions.

Duh!


4 posted on 06/15/2013 10:02:26 AM PDT by afraidfortherepublic
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To: pepsionice
AND, Wooly Mammoths weren't the 'docile beasts' that we are given to imagine.


5 posted on 06/15/2013 10:05:19 AM PDT by UCANSEE2 (The monsters are due on Maple Street)
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To: pepsionice

They probably hunted them like Africans did 3-400 years ago_ gut wound them and then track them for a week until the elephant died. While not safe, two or three people could feed a village for a month.


6 posted on 06/15/2013 10:05:32 AM PDT by fini
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To: afraidfortherepublic

That depends on how often you want to hut—or whether you’re having ‘family’ over...


7 posted on 06/15/2013 10:07:34 AM PDT by Smokin' Joe (How often God must weep at humans' folly. Stand fast. God knows what He is doing)
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To: SunkenCiv

Saw an article some time back about the discovery of an ancient house made with about 100 mammoth tusks.


8 posted on 06/15/2013 10:12:38 AM PDT by mountainlion (Live well for those that did not make it back.)
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To: mountainlion

The owner was a good hunter.


9 posted on 06/15/2013 10:37:23 AM PDT by eartrumpet
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To: SunkenCiv

10 posted on 06/15/2013 10:44:02 AM PDT by JoeProBono (Mille vocibus imago valet;-{)
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To: SunkenCiv

The picture looks like maybe they stumbled upon the trash pit from an early Texas BBQ hut!


11 posted on 06/15/2013 10:45:54 AM PDT by Noob1999 (Loose Lips, Sink Ships)
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To: pepsionice; afraidfortherepublic; UCANSEE2; fini; Smokin' Joe; mountainlion; eartrumpet; ...

related link at the original:

Neandertals’ mammoth building project
Extinct hominids may have been first to build with bones
By Bruce Bower
Web edition: December 2, 2011
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/chat/2817549/posts
http://www.sciencenews.org/view/generic/id/336659/description/Neandertals_mammoth_building_project

another of the most-watched:

Now-extinct wolf may be ancestor of modern-day dogs
No strong signs of canine ancestry among living grey wolves
By Tina Hesman Saey
Web edition: June 10, 2013
http://www.sciencenews.org/view/generic/id/350913/description/Now-extinct_wolf_may_be_ancestor_of_modern-day_dogs


12 posted on 06/15/2013 10:54:56 AM PDT by SunkenCiv (McCain or Romney would have been worse, if you're a dumb ass.)
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The Neandertal Enigma
by James Shreeve

in local libraries
"Frayer's own reading of the record reveals a number of overlooked traits that clearly and specifically link the Neandertals to the Cro-Magnons. One such trait is the shape of the opening of the nerve canal in the lower jaw, a spot where dentists often give a pain-blocking injection. In many Neandertal, the upper portion of the opening is covered by a broad bony ridge, a curious feature also carried by a significant number of Cro-Magnons. But none of the alleged 'ancestors of us all' fossils from Africa have it, and it is extremely rare in modern people outside Europe." [pp 126-127]

13 posted on 06/15/2013 11:01:59 AM PDT by SunkenCiv (McCain or Romney would have been worse, if you're a dumb ass.)
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To: SunkenCiv

“Several European and North American sites have yielded single mammoth carcasses lying amid stone tools.” The described scene, would suggest another or other predators, taking over the kill. These folks would not abandon tools.


14 posted on 06/15/2013 11:11:22 AM PDT by RedHeeler
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To: SunkenCiv

“Stupid Og. He never returns any of the tools he borrows from me. I guess I’ll have to go kill a mammoth and make another adjustable wrench.”


15 posted on 06/15/2013 11:28:10 AM PDT by blueunicorn6 ("A crack shot and a good dancer")
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To: UCANSEE2
better?

16 posted on 06/15/2013 1:00:13 PM PDT by BroJoeK (a little historical perspective....)
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To: RedHeeler

Good point!


17 posted on 06/15/2013 5:42:05 PM PDT by SunkenCiv (McCain or Romney would have been worse, if you're a dumb ass.)
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To: pepsionice

beat me to it....if all I had was spears, I’d be nuts to go after anything bigger than a dog...If they hunted mammoths that explains their demise


18 posted on 06/15/2013 6:08:19 PM PDT by goat granny
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To: JoeProBono

LOL mammoths win every time...the skin would be so thick a scrawny spear would bounce off it...


19 posted on 06/15/2013 6:10:45 PM PDT by goat granny
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To: Noob1999

They must have needed a lot of potato salad, which probably explains why they colonized the Americas.


20 posted on 06/15/2013 6:15:36 PM PDT by SunkenCiv (McCain or Romney would have been worse, if you're a dumb ass.)
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