# How Did People Hunt Mammoth? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [December 11, 2013, 10:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-people-hunt-mammoth/676110 "2013-12-11T22:00:04Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Simplicio](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c37758/32.png) [@Simplicio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Simplicio)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2013, 5:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-people-hunt-mammoth/676110/21 "2013-12-12T05:19:33Z")
Here’s a (rather brutal, wouldn’t watch if your sensitive to violence against animals) video [of African tribesman hunting elephants](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fkN6C1ur1t8) and hippos with spears. The technique seems to basically be a) bring a lot of guys, b) throw a butt load of spears into the animal, c) harass the animal until it drops. Dunno how closely that maps onto prehistoric methods, but there doesn’t seem to be anything that would be beyond their reach technologically, anyways. ---
**Author:** ![chacoguy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/50afbb/32.png) [@chacoguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chacoguy)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2013, 5:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-people-hunt-mammoth/676110/22 "2013-12-12T05:59:49Z")
> [@Xema](#): > > Could it not get to the same place via a spear thrust delivered after the beast was lying on its side? Fair Point, I’d wondered that too. I’ll take a look. ---
**Author:** ![Blake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/a9a28c/32.png) [@Blake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Blake)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2013, 7:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-people-hunt-mammoth/676110/23 "2013-12-12T07:02:20Z")
> [@zev\_steinhardt](#): > > If they were killing one to “stock up for winter” (would they have even done that?), how would they preserve the meat? Would they be able to salt it or turn it into jerky or the like in that sort of environment? Hunter Gatherers tend \*not \*to store food. that’s more of an agriculturalist idea. Storing food requires permanent, inhabited structures to store the food in, which few HG possess. For a HG group, it usually makes more sense to move on and find more food, then to try to store food and then have to sit on it to protect it from scavengers. > [@armedmonkey](#): > > [This article](http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/science-news/10037399/Mastodons-descended-into-civil-war-due-to-human-hunting.html) says that humans targeted the biggest and most dominant males. If it’s true, it points to an obvious tactic: Harass the herd, while keeping a somewhat safe distance. Wait for the alpha bull to place himself between you and the herd (this way he singles himself out from the herd in an attempt to deal with the threat) and then use atlatls to take the isolated male down. No pit trap necessary. If mammoths were like modern elephants, the males never lived with the herd. The females only tolerate the males around when they are breeding. So if people were hunting the males, that tells us they were hunting isolated individuals that had no herd to defend them. Which makes sense. A bull elephant is no more dangerous than a cow, but a herd of elephant is far more dangerous than an individual. ---
**Author:** ![Magicicada](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c67d28/32.png) [@Magicicada](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Magicicada)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2013, 2:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-people-hunt-mammoth/676110/24 "2013-12-12T14:37:56Z")
So, we’re all going on the assumption that Jean Auel’s novel The Mammoth Hunters isn’t the last word? ---
**Author:** ![The\_Stafford\_Cripps](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_stafford_cripps/32/7167_2.png) [@The\_Stafford\_Cripps](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Stafford_Cripps)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2013, 3:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-people-hunt-mammoth/676110/25 "2013-12-12T15:25:51Z")
> [@zev\_steinhardt](#): > > I’m trying to flesh out a story about prehistoric people (think late Stone Age, maybe early Bronze) who live in a somewhat arctic area where the main source of sustenance/hides/building material is mammoth. Mammoths died out long before the bronze age started. The point about the bronze age, and the preceding neolithic (ie ‘new stone age’) is that people were farmers and no longer hunted. In British terms mammoths died out before the mesolithic (‘middle stone age’). ---
**Author:** ![N9IWP](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/n9iwp/32/3154_2.png) [@N9IWP](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/N9IWP)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2013, 5:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-people-hunt-mammoth/676110/26 "2013-12-12T17:26:24Z")
> [@The\_Stafford\_Cripps](#): > > Mammoths died out long before the bronze age started. The point about the bronze age, and the preceding neolithic (ie ‘new stone age’) is that people were farmers and no longer hunted. In British terms mammoths died out before the mesolithic (‘middle stone age’). Well, there were dwarf Mammoths on Wrangel Island as recently as 2000 BCE Brian ---
**Author:** ![bup](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/6bbea6/32.png) [@bup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bup)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2013, 5:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-people-hunt-mammoth/676110/27 "2013-12-12T17:31:24Z")
> [@N9IWP](#): > > Well, there were dwarf Mammoths on Wrangel Island as recently as 2000 BCE But the humans there were still living a stone-aged life. ---
**Author:** ![turtlescanfly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/65b543/32.png) [@turtlescanfly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/turtlescanfly)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2013, 11:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-people-hunt-mammoth/676110/28 "2013-12-12T23:45:00Z")
> [@sweetie pea](#): > > So, we’re all going on the assumption that Jean Auel’s novel The Mammoth Hunters isn’t the last word? Say what you will about Ms. Auels’ writing (I happen to be a fan, but YMMV) but my understanding is that she did a BOATLOAD of research into hunter-gatherer society. I have no way of knowing if the mammoth hunts depicted in her novels\* are the way it was done in real life but it certainly seems plausible. \*IIRC, in one case the Clan chased a young bull into a blind canyon (using flaming torches to drive it) where it couldn’t turn around, slashed its Achilles tendon so it couldn’t back up, and then just stab-stab-stab. ---
**Author:** ![gracer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/8e7dd6/32.png) [@gracer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gracer)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2013, 11:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-people-hunt-mammoth/676110/29 "2013-12-12T23:56:35Z")
> [@zev\_steinhardt](#): > > Try to get the mammoth to fall into a pit trap (and if so, how would you get it to go to where the trap is)? Some other tactic that I’m not aware of? It’s called a Heffalump Trap. You put honey in the bottom. Detailed instructions [here](http://www.acc.umu.se/~coppelia/pooh/stories/ch5.html). Remember not to eat the honey yourself, this is where most people go wrong. ---
**Author:** ![AClockworkMelon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aclockworkmelon/32/10803_2.png) [@AClockworkMelon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AClockworkMelon)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2013, 12:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-people-hunt-mammoth/676110/30 "2013-12-13T00:00:46Z")
Documentary about this very thing: [- YouTube](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fepWUThEPOg) ---
**Author:** ![armedmonkey](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/d6d6ee/32.png) [@armedmonkey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/armedmonkey)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2013, 2:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-people-hunt-mammoth/676110/31 "2013-12-13T02:36:00Z")
> [@zev\_steinhardt](#): > > I’m trying to flesh out a story about prehistoric people > [@armedmonkey](#): > > [This article](http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/science-news/10037399/Mastodons-descended-into-civil-war-due-to-human-hunting.html) says that humans targeted the biggest and most dominant males > [@Blake](#): > > If mammoths were like modern elephants, the males never lived with the herd. The females only tolerate the males around when they are breeding. **zev** , I haven’t read the story you’re working on, but that right there may be what you need. The herd is a factor, but the big lone male is the Moby Dick. ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2013, 6:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-people-hunt-mammoth/676110/32 "2013-12-13T06:47:34Z")
> [@ftg](#): > > Given the bogginess of large areas of their range, I’d think about working a mammoth into a marshy spot until it sinks into some spongy ground. Makes it a lot harder for it to move around and charge. Throw spears from a distance. A tactic not available for the San. It’s [not all desert](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Okavango_Delta#People). ---
**Author:** ![Bridget\_Burke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7cd45c/32.png) [@Bridget\_Burke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bridget_Burke)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2013, 2:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-people-hunt-mammoth/676110/33 "2013-12-13T14:18:17Z")
> [@Punoqllads](#): > > Native Americans are said to have run bison off cliffs. E.g., [Head-Smashed-In Buffalo Jump](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Head-Smashed-In_Buffalo_Jump). It’s possible that some similar approach could have worked with mammoths. Or you might just be conflating the two. The newish [Paleontology Hall](http://www.hmns.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=510&Itemid=534) at Houston’s Natural History Museum has [a skeletal recreation](http://www.flickr.com/photos/17903031@N00/7270078076/) of a mammoth hunt involving cliffs. Including a hapless hunter… The megafauna die-off, mentioned above, may not have been a result of the Mighty Hunting of the Clovis Folk. And there’s increasing evidence for pre-Clovis immigration. Up at Texas A&M, the [Center for the Study of the First Americans](http://csfa.tamu.edu/who.php) has some interesting information… ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2013, 4:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-people-hunt-mammoth/676110/34 "2013-12-13T16:05:32Z")
> [@Bridget\_Burke](#): > > The megafauna die-off, mentioned above, may not have been a result of the Mighty Hunting of the Clovis Folk. And there’s increasing evidence for pre-Clovis immigration. Up at Texas A&M, the [Center for the Study of the First Americans](http://csfa.tamu.edu/who.php) has some interesting information… The “Clovis first” model of the colonization of the Americas has been effectively defunct for some time. Nearly all archaeologist now acknowledge that there were people in the Americas well before Clovis. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2013, 4:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-people-hunt-mammoth/676110/35 "2013-12-13T16:18:46Z")
> [@Blake](#): > > Hunter Gatherers tend \*not \*to store food. that’s more of an agriculturalist idea. Storing food requires permanent, inhabited structures to store the food in, which few HG possess. For a HG group, it usually makes more sense to move on and find more food, then to try to store food and then have to sit on it to protect it from scavengers. **zev** didn’t say “store food,” he said “stock up for winter.” If we consider the Plains Indians as a model, they made as much buffalo jerky and pemmican as they could after a successful hunt. They preserved meat by cutting it in thin strips and drying it in the sun or over a fire. If they had to move, they would carry as much with them as they could manage. During the winter, they would break up into small bands and make camp, where they would subsist on whatever food they had been able to preserve plus whatever they could hunt locally. It’s very likely that after a successful hunt mammoth hunters would gorge themselves on fresh meat for several days, while at the same time preserving as much meat as they could carry with them to use later. ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2013, 4:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-people-hunt-mammoth/676110/36 "2013-12-13T16:22:42Z")
> [@Colibri](#): > > It’s very likely that after a successful hunt mammoth hunters would gorge themselves on fresh meat for several days, while at the same time preserving as much meat as they could carry with them to use later. They would also likely cache some in strategic locations, especially if they were living in areas where permafrost afforded them natural refrigeration. Can’t remember for sure, but I seem to recall reading that some evidence of this has been found. ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2013, 5:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-people-hunt-mammoth/676110/37 "2013-12-13T17:51:54Z")
> [@Blake](#): > > A bull elephant is no more dangerous than a cow They do have an attitude, however. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![mbh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a6a055/32.png) [@mbh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mbh)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2013, 6:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-people-hunt-mammoth/676110/38 "2013-12-13T18:29:09Z")
From what I have read and heard, two main technologies played a role: Spears with detachable foreshafts (harpoons). When it strikes the target, the shaft and the foreshaft separate. The shaft bounces back toward the hunter. The reaction drives the foreshaft deeper into the wound. (Ask a physicist: it’s a neat application of Conservation of Momentum.) The atlatl enabled hunters to hurl spears farther and faster. [http://waa.basketmakeratlatl.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/Atlatl-Experiments.pdf](http://waa.basketmakeratlatl.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/Atlatl-Experiments.pdf) [This is weird. I can cut and paste from his bibliography, but not from the main text. Anyway, scroll down to page 20, and read the section titled “Weapon trials: Problems with experimental evaluations of atlatls”.] Butler, William B. 1975 The Atlatl: The Physics of Function and Performance. _Plains Anthropologist_ 20 (68): 105-110. 1980 Penetrating Elephant Hides with Wood Atlatl Darts. _Plains Anthropologist_ 25 (90): 353- 356. Callahan, Errett 1994 A Mammoth Undertaking. _Bulletin of Primitive Technology_ 1(7):23-39. Frison, George C. 1989 Experimental Use of Clovis Weaponry and Tools on African Elephants. _American Antiquity_ 54(4): 766-783. ---
**Author:** ![Bridget\_Burke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7cd45c/32.png) [@Bridget\_Burke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bridget_Burke)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2013, 6:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-people-hunt-mammoth/676110/39 "2013-12-13T18:54:29Z")
> [@Colibri](#): > > The “Clovis first” model of the colonization of the Americas has been effectively defunct for some time. Nearly all archaeologist now acknowledge that there were people in the Americas well before Clovis. Thankfully. Just a few years ago, The Americas section in the same museum began with a mural of folks crossing the Bering Land Bridge–as if that was the _only_ way to come! I’m wrote a letter to the curator asking for more current information to be posted. He sent me a polite refusal… The Paleontology hall tells a fuller story, even though it only skirts anthropology. ---
**Author:** ![Xema](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/9de053/32.png) [@Xema](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Xema)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2013, 7:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-people-hunt-mammoth/676110/40 "2013-12-13T19:40:18Z")
> [@mbh](#): > > Spears with detachable foreshafts (harpoons). When it strikes the target, the shaft and the foreshaft separate. The shaft bounces back toward the hunter. The reaction drives the foreshaft deeper into the wound. Any cite for this? I’d be interested to hear when & where it was used to hunt land animals. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-people-hunt-mammoth/676110.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-people-hunt-mammoth/676110.md?page=3)