Researchers from UC Berkeley have proposed that early humans may have used planted pikes instead of throwing spears to hunt mammoths during the Ice Age. This theory challenges the traditional belief that humans used Clovis points, razor-sharp stone tools, as projectile weapons to bring down megafauna. Drawing upon historical evidence and experimental studies, the archaeologists suggest that ancient hunters braced the butt of their spears against the ground and angled them upward to impale charging animals.
They argue that this method would have delivered a more forceful and damaging blow than a spear thrown by hand. The team conducted the first experimental study focused on pike-hunting techniques. They used replica spears to test how these weapons responded to the force of an approaching animal.
The results indicated that once the Clovis point pierced the flesh, it functioned like a modern-day hollow-point bullet, causing significant internal damage. This ancient Native American design was an amazing innovation in hunting strategies,” said one of the research associates. The findings offer insights into early Indigenous people’s sophisticated hunting and survival techniques.
Clovis points, named after the town of Clovis, New Mexico, where they were first discovered, are among the most frequently found artifacts from the Ice Age. These points were crafted from rocks like chert, flint, or jasper and are known for their distinct, fluted indentations.
Early humans’ pike-hunting method
Thousands of them have been recovered across the U.S., sometimes within preserved mammoth skeletons. These spears’ intricately designed bone shafts are occasionally found, but the wood and other components have mostly been lost to time. Researchers believe that understanding these tools as complete systems is crucial.
The spear, comprising stone points, bone shafts, and wooden bases, required multiple kinds of expertise to build and use effectively. The team built a test platform to measure the force a spear system could endure before breaking. Their low-tech version of an animal attack using a braced replica Clovis point spear showed how the weapon could withstand significant pressure and maintain its effectiveness.
One of the archaeologists involved in the study said, ” The kind of energy that you can generate with the human arm is nothing like the energy generated by a charging animal. ” The spears were designed to protect the user by leveraging the animal’s force against them. These findings provide new perspectives on early humans’ ingenuity and ability to live alongside and hunt large animals.
The team plans to continue testing their theory using a replica mammoth to simulate real hunting scenarios. “Sometimes in archaeology, the pieces just start fitting together, and this puts pike hunting front and center with extinct megafauna,” said one of the researchers. This study opens up new ways of understanding how early humans interacted with their environment and the creatures they shared it with.
April Isaacs is a news contributor for DevX.com She is long-term, self-proclaimed nerd. She loves all things tech and computers and still has her first Dreamcast system. It is lovingly named Joni, after Joni Mitchell.
