Pre-Clovis Mastodon Hunting Confirmed
A reexamination of a site in Washington State concludes early humans killed mastodons.
News In the
Mike Waters
R
ecent re-analysis of a rib containing a bone point fragment from a 13,800-year-old mastodon at the Manis site in the Olympic Peninsula in northwest Washington State has confirmed that ancient hunters were in North America at least 800 years earlier than previously thought. A team of researchers led by archaeologist Michael Waters, director for the Center for First American Studies at Texas A&M University, conducted multiple tests, including DNA and bone protein analysis, CT scanning, mass spectrometry, and radiocarbon dating, all of which confirmed the early date and identity of the projectile as mastodon bone. The results were published in the October 21 issue of the journal Science. In the summer of 1977, site owner Emanuel Manis dug up two mastodon tusks and other bones in a marshy area on his land. One of the ribs had what appeared to be a bone point embedded in it. Emanuel and his wife, Clare, called archaeologists at Washington State University who, led by Carl Gustafson and Richard Daugherty, began an eight-year investigation.The site was radiocarbon dated to 14,000 years ago, making it the first to contain direct evidence for humans hunting mastodons in North America. In 2002, Clare donated the Manis site to The Archaeological Conservancy for permanent preservation in the name of her late husband Emanuel. Despite the evidence of human scavenging and processing of the mastodon, dating technology in the late 1970s was not as advanced as it is today, and many of Gustafson’s colleagues were skeptical of the early date and the identity of the projectile point. So several years ago, Waters contacted Gustafson about performing new tests on the mastodon rib. “The Manis site always interested me since I first read about it decades ago,”Waters said.“The potential for pre-Clovis occupation at the site looked great, but there still seemed to be nagging issues around it, so I called Carl to propose additional tests and he sent the mastodon rib bone.” Radiocarbon dating of the rib bone concluded that it’s 13,800 years old, confirming Gustafson’s early proposed date. Highresolution CT scanning at the University of Texas clearly showed that the object embedded in the rib was a projectile that tapered to a point. DNA and protein analyses determined the point was made from a mastodon bone. “This is pretty exciting. The DNA analyses show that pre-Clovis folks were scavenging or had killed another mastodon and were breaking up the bones to make weapons, and that they then used these weapons to hunt the Manis mastodon,” Waters said. “This site adds to our growing knowledge of the pre-Clovis occupation of the Americas and shows people were hunting mastodons long before Clovis people did, and the very exciting aspect of it is that these folks had bone tool technology.” —Tamara Stewart
american archaeology
The fragmented bone point is embedded near the top of the mastodon rib.
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