Mexican mammoth trap provides first evidence of prehistoric hunting pits

[Eugene]

Source: The Guardian

Mexican mammoth trap provides first evidence of prehistoric hunting pits

• More than 800 bones found including one with spear wound
• ‘This is evidence of direct attacks on mammoths’

Jo Tuckman in Mexico City
Thu 7 Nov 2019 15.57 GMT
Last modified on Thu 7 Nov 2019 18.55 GMT

Mexican archaeologists say they have made the first ever discovery of pits built around 15,000 years ago to trap mammoths.

Announcing the find on Wednesday, researchers from Mexico’s National Institute of Anthropology and History said the two pits contained about 824 bones from at least 14 mammoths.

Hunters may have used torches to scare the mammals into the area with the traps, which are about 6ft (1.70m) deep and 25 yards in diameter, but one of the skulls found also had marks of a spear wound on the front.

Luis Córdova Barradas, the leader of the five-person excavation team, said the find in the neighbourhood of Tultepec, just north of Mexico City, marks a watershed in the study of the relationship between prehistoric hunting and gathering communities and the huge herbivores.

“There was little evidence before that hunters attacked mammoths. It was thought they frightened them into getting stuck in swamps and then waited for them to die,” he told reporters on Wednesday. “This is evidence of direct attacks on mammoths. In Tultepec we can see there was the intention to hunt and make use of the mammoths.”

-snip-

Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/nov/07/mammoth-trap-mexico-prehistoric-hunting-pits


The traps were around two metres deep and 25 metres wide (EPA)


Some of the bones showed physical signs of being hunted (AFP/INAH)

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Source: BBC

Mexico mammoths: Human-built woolly mammoth traps found in Tultepec

7 November 2019

At least 14 woolly mammoth skeletons have been uncovered in Mexico in traps built by humans about 15,000 years ago.

The two pits in Tultepec north of Mexico City are the first mammoth traps to be discovered, officials say.

Early hunters may have herded the elephant-sized mammals into the traps using torches and branches.

The recent discovery of more than 800 mammoth bones could change our understanding of how early humans hunted the enormous animals.

Mexico's National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH) says more traps could be uncovered in the area north of Mexico City.

-snip-

Read more: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-50330717

[magicarpet]

1. A mammoth burger takeout restaurant,... maybe ?

Any styro takeout containers or plastic silverware ?

[wnylib]

2. I vaguely remember something similar being

brought up in a junior high school ancient history class regsrding massive kills in Europe or Eurasia. So it appears to have been a stone age custom in more than one place. Perhaps this technique was used with other large animals as well.

I wonder if they cut off part of the herd rather than rush the whole lot of them.

[eppur_se_muova]

3. Mammoth tacqueria. nt