[sodpoodle]

Not being sarcastic - but skeptical. Please inform on the primitive weapons that were used to kill elephants.

It would seem more likely that dead carcasses were scavenged for ivory and meat. i.e. Old, large elephants have bigger tusks. Dead elephants are less risky than agile, live ones.

[pa_dweller]

I just finished Nutrition and Physical Degeneration by Weston A. Price. One of the hunting techniques presented involved (only) two men taking down a bull elephant. Over a series of days they cut the tendons in its hind legs to immobilize the creature. Once this was done one of the men would distract the animal while the other hacked off its trunk, causing it to bleed to death. IIRC it was pygmys who did this, no less. It seems pretty wild I'll admit but, Price was a scientist, not a joker.

[LaRueLaDue]

“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.

[dsc]

“Not being sarcastic - but skeptical. Please inform on the primitive weapons that were used to kill elephants.”

American Indians used to hunt buffalo by using the terrain and strategically set wild fires to stampede them off of cliffs.

That was often wasteful, of course, but there were far too many buffalo to worry about ever killing them all.