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Early humans used planted pikes, not spears, to kill mammoths in the Ice Age, new research suggests.
Archaeologists say the findings might reshape what we think life was like some 13,000 years ago.
The researchers looked at how early humans used sharpened rocks to bring down large animals, investigating the use of razor-sharp rocks called Clovis points.
The findings indicate humans may have braced the butt of their pointed spears against the ground and angled the weapon upward in a way that would impale a charging animal.
This distinctive Indigenous technology is providing a window into hunting and survival techniques used for millennia throughout much of the world— Scott Byram, UC Berkeley
The force of the predator falling onto the spear would have driven it deeper into the animal’s body, unleashing a more damaging blow than even the strongest prehistoric hunters would have been capable of on their own.
According to the study, once the sharpened rock pierced the flesh, the spear tip functioned like a modern day hollow-point bullet and could inflict serious wounds to mastodons, bison and sabre-toothed cats.
First author Scott Byram, a research associate with the University of California Berkeley’s archaeological research facility, said: “This ancient Native American design was an amazing innovation in hunting strategies.
“This distinctive indigenous technology is providing a window into hunting and survival techniques used for millennia throughout much of the world.”
Co-author, Jun Sunseri, a Berkeley associate professor of anthropology, said: “The kind of energy that you can generate with the human arm is nothing like the kind of energy generated by a charging animal.
“It’s an order of magnitude different.
“These spears were engineered to do what they’re doing to protect the user.”
In the study, the researchers built a test platform measuring the force a spear system could withstand before the point snapped and/or the shaft expanded.
This allowed them to test how different spears reached their breaking points and how the expansion system responded.
In the coming months, the researchers plan to further test their theory by building something akin to a replica mammoth.
By doing this, they hope to simulate what an attack might have looked like as a planted Clovis-tipped pike made impact with a massive, fast-moving mammal.
For the research, published in the Plos One journal, the archaeologists reviewed historical evidence from around the world about people hunting with planted spears.
They also ran the first experimental study of stone weapons that focused on pike hunting techniques.
The findings may help solve the puzzle of how communities in North America actually used Clovis points, which are among the most frequently unearthed items from the Ice Age – often preserved in mammoth skeletons.
Named for the town of Clovis, New Mexico – where the shaped stones were first recovered nearly a century ago, Clovis points were shaped from rocks, such as chert, flint or jasper.
They range from thumb-sized to a small smartphone and have a razor-sharp edge and fluted indentations on both sides of their base.
