New research shows ancient Americans ate mainly mammoth 13,000 years ago

By Stephen Beech

Ancient Americans were dining on mammoth steaks 13,000 years ago, reveals new research.

Scientists have found the first direct evidence that early Indigenous people in what is now the United States were "effective hunters" who relied primarily on the now-extinct species and other large animals for food.

The study, published in the journal Science Advances, sheds new light on both the rapid expansion of humans throughout the Americas and the extinction of large ice-age mammals.

Researchers used stable isotope analysis to model the diet of the mother of an infant discovered at a 13,000-year-old Clovis burial site in Montana.

Before the new study, prehistoric diet was worked out by analyzing secondary evidence, such as stone tools or the preserved remains of prey animals.

The new findings support the hypothesis that Clovis people specialized in hunting big beasts rather than primarily foraging for smaller animals and plants.

The research team explained that the Clovis people inhabited North America around 13,000 years ago.

During that time period, mammoths lived across both northern Asia and the Americas.

Scientists say the mammoths migrated long distances, which made them a reliable fat- and protein-rich resource for highly mobile humans.

Study co-lead author Professor James Chatters, of McMaster University in Canada, said: “The focus on mammoths helps explain how Clovis people could spread throughout North America and into South America in just a few hundred years."

Co-lead author Professor Ben Potter, of the University of Alaska Fairbanks (UAF), said: “What's striking to me is that this confirms a lot of data from other sites.

"For example, the animal parts left at Clovis sites are dominated by megafauna, and the projectile points are large, affixed to darts, which were efficient distance weapons.”

He says hunting mammoths provided a "flexible" way of life as it allowed the Clovis people to move into new areas without having to rely on the smaller, localized game, which could vary significantly from one region to the next.

Potter said: “This mobility aligns with what we see in Clovis technology and settlement patterns.

“They were highly mobile. They transported resources like toolstone over hundreds of miles.”

The research team was able to model the Clovis people’s diet by first analyzing isotopic data published during earlier studies by other researchers of the remains of an 18-month-old Clovis child, dubbed Anzick-1.

By adjusting for nursing, they were able to estimate values for his mother’s diet.

Study co-author Dr. Matthew Wooller, director of the Alaska Stable Isotope facility at UAF, said: “Isotopes provide a chemical fingerprint of a consumer's diet and can be compared with those from potential diet items to estimate the proportional contribution of different diet items,”

The researchers compared the mother’s stable isotopic fingerprint to those from a wide range of food sources from the same time period and region.

They discovered that about 40% of her diet came from mammoth, with other large animals - including elk and bison - making up the rest.

But small mammals, sometimes thought to have been an important food source, played only a very minor role in her diet.

The research team then compared the mother’s diet to those of other omnivores and carnivores from the same time period, including American lions, bears and wolves.

They found that the mother’s diet was most similar to that of the scimitar cat, a mammoth specialist.

The team's findings also suggest that early humans may have contributed to the extinction of large ice-age animals, especially as environmental changes reduced their habitats.

Potter said: “If the climate is changing in a way that reduces the suitable habitat for some of these megafauna, then it makes them potentially more susceptible to human predation.

"These people were very effective hunters.”

Chatters said: “You had the combination of a highly sophisticated hunting culture - with skills honed over 10,000 years in Eurasia — meeting naïve populations of megafauna under environmental stress."

The team said that an important aspect of the research was their outreach to Native Americans in Montana and Wyoming about their concerns and interest in the work.

Potter said: "It is important and ethical to consult with Indigenous peoples on questions relating to their heritage."

The researchers worked with Shane Doyle, executive director of Yellowstone Peoples, who reached out to numerous tribal government representatives throughout Montana, Wyoming and Idaho.

Doyle said, “The response has been one of appreciative consideration and inclusion.”

He added: "I congratulate the team for their astounding discovery about the lifeways of Clovis-era Native people and thank them for being tribally inclusive and respectful throughout their research.

“This study reshapes our understanding of how Indigenous people across America thrived by hunting one of the most dangerous and dominant animals of the day, the mammoth."