Clovis People's Diet Mainly Included Mammoths and Other Large Mammals, New Study Says
Dec 4, 2024
by News Staff
Paleoanthropologists have found that the Columbian mammoth (Mammuthus columbi) was the largest contributor to the diet of the Clovis people — the earliest widespread group of hunter-gatherers to inhabit North America, followed by elk and bison/camel, while the contribution of small mammals was negligible.
An artist’s reconstruction of Clovis life 13,000 years ago shows the Anzick-1 infant with his mother consuming mammoth meat near a hearth. Another individual crafts tools, including dart projectile points and atlatls. A mammoth butchery area is visible nearby. Image credit: Eric Carlson / Ben Potter / Jim Chatters.
The Clovis people inhabited North America around 13,000 years ago. During that time period, megafaunal animals like mammoths lived across both northern Asia and the Americas. They migrated long distances, which made them a reliable fat- and protein-rich resource for highly mobile humans.
Some researchers contend that the Clovis people were megafaunal specialists to some extent, focusing particularly on mammoths, while others have argued that such an adaptation was not viable, and thus, Clovis populations were more likely broad-spectrum foragers, regularly incorporating in their diet small game, plants, and perhaps fish.
“The focus on mammoths helps explain how Clovis people could spread throughout North America and into South America in just a few hundred years,” said Dr. James Chatters, a researcher at McMaster University.
“What’s striking to me is that this confirms a lot of data from other sites,” said University of Alaska Fairbanks Professor Ben Potter. “For example, the animal parts left at Clovis sites are dominated by megafauna, and the projectile points are large, affixed to darts, which were efficient distance weapons.”
More:
https://www.sci.news/othersciences/anthropology/clovis-diet-13483.html