Pre-Clovis mastodon hunting 13,800 years ago at the Manis site, Washington. Academic Article uri icon

abstract

  • The tip of a projectile point made of mastodon bone is embedded in a rib of a single disarticulated mastodon at the Manis site in the state of Washington. Radiocarbon dating and DNA analysis show that the rib is associated with the other remains and dates to 13,800 years ago. Thus, osseous projectile points, common to the Beringian Upper Paleolithic and Clovis, were made and used during pre-Clovis times in North America. The Manis site, combined with evidence of mammoth hunting at sites in Wisconsin, provides evidence that people were hunting proboscideans at least two millennia before Clovis.

published proceedings

  • Science

altmetric score

  • 243.454

author list (cited authors)

  • Waters, M. R., Stafford, T. W., McDonald, H. G., Gustafson, C., Rasmussen, M., Cappellini, E., ... Willerslev, E.

citation count

  • 131

complete list of authors

  • Waters, Michael R||Stafford, Thomas W||McDonald, H Gregory||Gustafson, Carl||Rasmussen, Morten||Cappellini, Enrico||Olsen, Jesper V||Szklarczyk, Damian||Jensen, Lars Juhl||Gilbert, M Thomas P||Willerslev, Eske

publication date

  • October 2011