The Ancient Americas

Featured Culture

Cooperative Hunting
Large animals like mammoths offer ample meat for food, leather for clothes, and bones for tools. But a single hunter simply could not bring down such a giant alone. And in fact, archaeologists find evidence that Clovis hunters worked together to bring down large, Ice Age mammals that are extinct today, such as mammoths, mastodons, and bison.

At a site in Naco, Arizona, archaeologists uncovered fossilized remains of a mammoth with eight spear points lodged among its bones. All are Clovis points, but each is slightly different from the others, leading archaeologists to believe that each point was made, and used, by a different hunter.

Evidence that Clovis people hunted in groups shows that cooperation has long been part of human societies. And the spread of Clovis points across North America testifies to their successful design and the sharing of information—without modern technology—between people scattered over vast distances.

To imagine what it may have felt like to live in a Clovis community, take a look at Being a Part of Clovis Society.

Continue to the Image Gallery. >>