Big Game Hunters

Roughly 12,000 years ago, prehistoric mammals roamed the North American horizon. These mammals ranged from prehistoric camels, to lions, woolly mammoths, bison, armadillos, mastodons and many other large animals known as mega-fauna. The origin of the North American mega-fauna is still in debate, but it is surmised that most arrived via the Bering land bridge or Beringia in Alaska. The arrival of the mega-fauna had a deep impact on the ecological scheme of North America, which impacted its later human occupants. Roughly around the same time the mega-fauna were appearing in America, modern Homo-Sapiens (human beings) also arrived through the Bering land bridge.

The arrival of human beings did not gravely impact the growing landscape of North America at first, nor were the first Americans great hunters, gatherers, or agriculturists. The first hunting tools and methods were crude, consisting of simple projectile point weapons and very little specialization. Indeed, tools such as throwing spears were usually made of heavy wood and could not be thrown more than ten to twenty feet. To add to the problems of survival for the first Americans, the harsh North American climate was not easily settled. The harsh conditions however, brought about some major tool innovations, which have influenced archeological sites, as far south as the Guanaco region of South America, and as far north as Greenland.

The big game hunters had many ways of hunting large mega-fauna and gradually modified many tools to do so. One of the popular techniques of hunting was to encircle a herd of Mastodons or other animals, and drive them off of a cliff, or into a large thick swamp where they would be shot with poison darts, projectile points, or large stones. Once killed in the swamp, the prey was often skinned and taken from literally the knees up (to about the bog or swamp water level). This technique has been evidenced by large bone remains and deposits at many archeological sites. In addition, the tools used by the big game hunters changed over time. Tools such as atalatals increased the throwing distance and momentum of a spear thrower. Bow and arrow techniques, as well as innovations in the design and weight of projectile points, also aided in hunting efforts. In particular the use of a specific type of projectile point tells many things about the hunting efforts and traditions of the North American peoples.

Among the many projectile points found within the America's are three common types known as Clovis, Folsum, and Scottsbluff. These projectile points are indicative of a tool making tradition, in that they occurred and were common within different phases of paleo-history. The oldest of these projectile points is the Clovis point (see picture), the Clovis point was longer than many other stone tools used in hunting and was used from roughly 12,000 years B.P. (before present), to 11,000 B.P. The Folsum point came next and was used from roughly 11,000 to 8,000 B.P. The Folsum was a lighter weight projectile point and aided in the efficiency of hunting. Later, the Scottsbluff point was introduced(roughly around 8,500 B.P), which used finer flaking techniques in it's creation (for more pictures of projectile points click here). The gradual evolution of tool making as well as hunting tools and traditions, however, was not a linear progression, as there are hundreds of differing prehistoric tool-making traditions through out the Americas.

The effectiveness of the tool-making traditions of the Americas are well documented in the bone deposits and hunting sites throughout the area. Within many of these sites, horse, mammoth, beaver, sloth, bison, wooly mammoth, mastodon, and saber-toothed tiger can be found in just one site. The north American native horse was driven to extinction by the North American Hunters (the horse species was not reintroduced well into the Spanish Conquest). It is, of course, worthy to note that the hunters used all parts of the animals killed. This is evidenced by houses constructed out of whalebones, and other large animals (seen particularly in the coastal regions of Alaska, and the modern Northern Coast of California, Oregon and Washington). In fact, no part of the animal was wasted. The fur was used for clothing and other items, bone was often used to construct weapons, and many times the inedible byproducts of the animal were used for other domestic uses.

The end of prehistoric big game hunting came with the gradual extinction of the mega-fauna itself. At this time the climate began to shift form a glacial setting to a more modern ecology. This, as well as the massive hunting exploits of the early Americans, created conditions in which the mega-fauna were unable to survive. As a result of this massive extinction, smaller mammals began to occupy the ecological niche of the large mega-fauna. Rabbit, deer, and other animals began to fill the diet of the prehistoric hunters. In addition, the gathering exploits became essential to the survival of the north American peoples. Maize (corn), beans, squash, and other vegetable foods, well adapted to the North American environment were cultivated. However, in regions where fishing was abundant, large whaling exploits continued to and beyond the European conquest.

References

Clark, Grahame. World Prehistory . Cambridge University Press 1969

Flannery, Kent. The Early Meso-American Village. Academic Press 1976