Ancient Clovis Elephant-Hunting Camp Discovered in Mexico

[bluedigger]

A tip from a rancher in Mexico’s Sonoran Desert has led to an unexpected find: an ancient encampment where members of the Clovis culture hunted an elephant-like animal never before seen in North America’s archaeological record.

More importantly, the camp turned up a host of exquisite stone points and bone ornaments, with organic material dated to 13,400 years ago, making it one of the oldest Clovis sites on the continent, and the southernmost evidence yet found of the culture’s reach.

Archaeologists were tipped off in 2007 to unusual bones eroding out of a cut bank some 200 kilometers south of the Arizona border, at a site given the ominous name El Fin del Mundo, or The End of the World.

There they found the remains of two animals that initially proved difficult to identify.

“At first, just based on the size of the bone, we thought maybe it was a bison, because the extinct bison were a little bigger than our modern bison,” said University of Arizona archaeologist Vance Holliday, in a press statement.

After uncovering the distinctive jawbone and teeth of one of the specimens, they realized they had found gomphotheres, odd-looking, long-jawed ancestors of modern elephants once thought to have vanished from North America before humans arrived.

http://westerndigs.org/clovis-elephant-hunting-site-discovered-in-mexico/



A clear quartz Clovis point found near the bone bed at El Fin del Mundo.
Although very difficult to shape into a tool, quartz was used by Clovis tool makers at several sites.
(Courtesy INAH Sonora)

Spectacular!

[Judi Lynn]

1. So much at one site! Hunting animals thought extinct by then.

Astonishing sight, that quartz artifact.

[bluedigger]

2. The more we know, the less we know.

They'll probably be digging up dinosaur saddles next.