Positive results were obtained from protein residue analysis on three Clovis points from Wally's Beach, southwestern Alberta. Two tested positive for Equus, the third for a bovid, probably Bison or Bootherium. All genera are present in the site remains. This finding clearly demonstrates use of Equus by Clovis hunters. Four 14C dates indicate that the site was in use between 11,000 and 11,300 B.P.
Evidence from the Wally's Beach site in southwestern Alberta indicates Pleistocene horses were hunted by Clovis age peoples. A number of artifacts are associated with a horse skeleton, including a cut-marked hyoid indicative of butchering and a flake projecting below one of the vertebrae that establishes the archaeological material is not intrusive. A large unmodified cobble apparently was used to mark the kill or anchor the cache. Six other finds of horse remains also have associated lithic artifacts. Horse behavior is explored to speculate on hunting strategy. It is concluded that humans and climate change probably contributed to the late Pleistocene extinction of North American horses.
Late Pleistocene large mammal extinctions in North America have been attributed to a number of factors or combination of factors, primarily climate change and human hunting, but the relative roles of these factors remain much debated. Clo-vis-period hunters exploited species such as mammoth, but many now extinct species such as camels were seemingly not hunted. Archaeological evidence from the Wally’s Beach site in southern Canada, including stone tools and butchered bone, provide the first evidence that Clovis people hunted North American camels. Archaeologists generally dismiss human hunting as a significant contributor to Pleistocene extinctions in North America, but Wally’s Beach demonstrates that human hunting was more inclusive than assumed and we must continue to consider hunting as a factor in Pleistocene extinctions.
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