The image of prehistoric people hunting and eating mammoths is an enduring idea in our popular imagination, but how accurate is it? The vast majority of the evidence for early North Americans eating mammoths comes from stone tools and animal bones, leaving plenty of room for speculation.
Last month, a study published in the journal Science Advances discussed chemical analyses of the remains of Anzick-1, an 18-month-old boy who lived around 12,800 years ago in present-day Montana. Anzick-1’s partial skeletal remains are the only known remains of an individual of the Clovis culture, considered ancestors of indigenous Americans.
During the Ice Age, Clovis peoples lived alongside a wide range of megafauna, including mammoths. Yet there is little conclusive evidence that these individuals actually hunted and ate mammoths, with some archaeologists favoring the theory that they mostly foraged or ate small mammals and fish.
The recent study measured the amount of carbon and nitrogen isotopes in Anzick-1’s bones to shed light on the diet of the Clovis people. Because of his young age, the boy was likely still breastfeeding, so much of this so-called “isotopic fingerprint” was likely passed down from his mother. The analysis showed that the boy’s most significant protein source came from mammoths (around 40% of his mother’s total diet), with elk and bison contributing a much less significant portion and smaller animals contributing a negligible amount.
The isotopic evidence underlines the fact that mammoths, particularly Columbian mammoths, were a staple food of the Clovis era. It also lends some weight to the theory that human hunters played a role in the extinction fo Ice Age megafauna.
More about Anzick-1:
- The remains of Anzick-1 were discovered in 1968 by construction workers on a ranch in Walsall, Montana. Although the remains were incomplete, consisting of 28 cranial fragments, the left clavicle, and several ribs, the age of the boy could be estimated based on cranial size and the state of cranial sutures.
- The child’s remains were found alongside 100 stone tools and 15 partial tools made of elk antlers, all of which were covered in red ocher.
- Anzick-1 is the first ancient Native American genome to be fully sequenced. DNA sequencing revealed that he was related to indigenous peoples in Central and South America, as well as individuals from Siberia and Central Asia, supporting the hypothesis that his ancestors had crossed the Bering Strait land bridge between Siberia and Alaska.