Mastodon butchery by North American Paleo-Indians

Abstract

It has often been argued that North American Paleo-Indians hunted both mammoths and mastodons^1–3. However, while numerous archaeological sites involving mammoths (genus Mammuthus) are recognized^3,4, very few sites demonstrate direct human association with mastodons^5–8. I report here a taphonomic analysis of several late Pleistocene mastodon (Mammut americanum) skeletons excavated in southern Michigan which provides compelling evidence of mastodon butchery. Butchery practices involved the production and use of tools fashioned from bones of the animal being butchered. Evidence for butchery and bone tool use includes: patterns of bone distribution and disarticulation recorded from a primary depositional context, disarticulation marks and cutmarks on bones, green bone fracturing, use wear and impact features on bone fragments, and burned bone. Moreover, determinations of the season of death of butchered mastodons⁹ suggest that butchery was associated with hunting and killing, not simply scavenging of natural deaths. These findings provide new evidence of a well developed ‘bone technology’^10–13 used by Paleo-Indians in eastern North America. They also add to our perception of Paleo-Indian subsistence activities and their possible role in the late Pleistocene extinction of mastodons.