Clovis projectile points and chipped-stone tools have been recovered in a number of archaeological sites in the New World, but these cannot be tested on mammoths, which we know from the archaeological evidence Clovis hunters were able to procure. Extensive culling of elephants in Hwange National Park in Zimbabwe provided the necessary animals to test replicas of Clovis tools and weaponry. The experiments leave little doubt that Clovis projectile points can inflict lethal wounds on African elephants and that simple stone tools will perform the necessary butchering tasks. The physiology of mammoths and elephants is similar enough to make positive statements on the potential of this kind of stone-tool and weaponry assemblage, but we will never be able to compare elephant and mammoth behavior directly.
A Late Prehistoric period buffalo kill and butchering site in northern Wyoming (Site 48 JO 312) produced a large number of stone tools. Flakes removed in sharpening stone tools provided much of the interpretation of the activity that occurred at the site and in addition gave a number of ideas concerning tool use and sharpening.
The Hawken site is a steep-sided arroyo into which small groups of bison were driven and slaughtered. The bison, which date about 4500 B.C. during the Altithermal period, are an extinct variant (B. bison occidentalis) and are morphologically intermediate between B. bison antiquus and B. bison bison. The projectile points are in the Altithermal period Side-Notched tradition and the butchering tools are similar to those found in many bison kill sites from the Paleoindian to the end of the Late Prehistoric period. Continuity of bison procurement methods from Paleoindian through Altithermal and into post-Altithermal times is suggested.
The Powars II site, 48PL330, located near Sunrise, Wyoming, is a significant Paleoindian site in the Hartville Uplift area of eastern Wyoming. Intensive red ochre mining took place at Powars II, as indicated by Paleoindian materials in direct association with a natural hematite deposit. Projectile points ranging in age from Clovis to Late Paleoindian have been recovered, as well as stone and bone tools, shell and bone beads, and several pieces of incised bone. It is argued that the Powars II assemblage reflects a two-part cultural manifestation: a technological component resulting from the process of mining and processing ochre, and an ideological component derived from emic beliefs about the ochre source itself. ᭧
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