| NSF Org: |
BCS Division of Behavioral and Cognitive Sciences |
| Recipient: |
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| Initial Amendment Date: | May 29, 2015 |
| Latest Amendment Date: | May 29, 2015 |
| Award Number: | 1541294 |
| Award Instrument: | Standard Grant |
| Program Manager: |
John Yellen
jyellen@nsf.gov (703)292-8759 BCS Division of Behavioral and Cognitive Sciences SBE Directorate for Social, Behavioral and Economic Sciences |
| Start Date: | June 15, 2015 |
| End Date: | May 31, 2018 (Estimated) |
| Total Intended Award Amount: | $31,770.00 |
| Total Awarded Amount to Date: | $31,770.00 |
| Funds Obligated to Date: |
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| History of Investigator: |
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| Recipient Sponsored Research Office: |
1 UNIVERSITY OF NEW MEXICO ALBUQUERQUE NM US 87131-0001 (505)277-4186 |
| Sponsor Congressional District: |
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| Primary Place of Performance: |
University of New Mexico Albuquerque NM US 87131-0001 |
| Primary Place of
Performance Congressional District: |
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| Unique Entity Identifier (UEI): |
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| Parent UEI: |
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| NSF Program(s): | Archaeology |
| Primary Program Source: |
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| Program Reference Code(s): |
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| Program Element Code(s): |
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| Award Agency Code: | 4900 |
| Fund Agency Code: | 4900 |
| Assistance Listing Number(s): | 47.075 |
ABSTRACT
Dr. Bruce Huckell, University of New Mexico, and his collaborators Drs. Timothy Rowe (University of Texas), Grant Meyer (UNM), and Leslie McFadden (UNM), will undertake research to investigate the exploitation of now-extinct elephants (mammoths, mastodons, and gomphotheres) by latest Pleistocene North American hunters of the Clovis cultural complex. The research documents a significant part of the American cultural heritage and to preserve artifacts associated with it. Despite the passage of some 80 years since discovery of the first Clovis-elephant association, disagreement remains about the significance of these large mammals in the Clovis diet. Some scholars believe that they were critical dietary resources killed whenever encountered, while others suggest that they were rarely taken and ranked much lower in the diet than small- and medium-sized game. Researchers who favor the latter perspective argue that elephant hunting only makes energetic sense if killed animals are thoroughly butchered; however, others propose that situational factors such as the size of the elephant, its nutritional condition, and the size of human social group will frequently dictate a less-than-thorough butchering. Archaeological evidence at previously excavated Clovis sites has suggested that many elephants were "lightly used." The disagreements are fueled in part by the small number (15) of known Clovis-elephant sites, and in part by divergent theoretical views on recent and past hunter-gatherer use of elephants.
Dr. Huckell and his collaborators will undertake high-risk research to test the hypothesis that Clovis hunters did not thoroughly butcher the elephants they killed, and that they were sensitive to diminishing energetic returns of meat with continued butchering labor. Optimal foraging theory - and specifically the diet breadth and patch choice (prey-as-patch) models - underpin the research. The scientific merits of this project are two-fold. First will be excavation of the newly discovered Hartley Mammoth in northern New Mexico, which contains the bones of a single mammoth rapidly being exposed by erosion, and nearby on the surface, a Clovis point. Excavation - including paleoenvironmental studies - of the areas containing the bones and the nearby point will determine whether Clovis foragers killed this mammoth, and if so, how intensively they butchered it. The second aspect of scientific merit is that investigation of the Hartley Mammoth provides a point of departure to review the extent of Clovis butchering of mammoth and other elephant carcasses at 10 previously excavated sites. Archival records for spatially discrete, single elephant carcasses will be examined for patterning among the carcasses. Maps of each carcass will be digitized, bones will be identified to element, portion, and side, and the position of the animal in death, its age, and size will be determined. The positions, types, and numbers of associated lithic or other artifacts will be tallied. Broader impacts of this research will include educational and training benefits for the graduate student crew, and use of the site for master's degree research by a young woman. The project will publicize Gary Hartley's decision to share his discovery with scientists, which may encourage others to do the same in the future, thereby contributing to the enhancement of knowledge of the nation's history of human occupation.
PROJECT OUTCOMES REPORT
Disclaimer
This Project Outcomes Report for the General Public is displayed verbatim as submitted by the Principal Investigator (PI) for this award. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this Report are those of the PI and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation; NSF has not approved or endorsed its content.
The Insight into Clovis Faunal Utilization project had two principal goals: 1) to test the hypothesis of "light use" of proboscidean (mammoth, mastodon, gomphothere) carcasses at known Clovis kill/butchery sites and 2) to excavate the recently discovered Hartley Mammoth site in north-central New Mexico to determine whether it was another Clovis kill/butchery site.
Intellectual Merit: Clovis Proboscidean Carcass Use
To investigate the first goal, 15 carcasses at 10 previously excavated Clovis kill/butchery sites were re-evaluated. Each represented a single proboscidean carcass with associated stone artifacts, including distinctive Clovis fluted spear points. Maps and field photographs were used to document: 1) the bones comprising the carcass; 2) the locations and types of stone artifacts in relation to the carcass; 3) evidence of post-depositional forces that might have affected the appearance of the site.
Analysis showed three important aspects of carcass utilization. First, at all sites, only small numbers of stone artifacts were associated, typically fewer than 8; no site had more than 20 tools. This by itself suggests that the butchering carried out was not intensive.
Second, the carcasses showed variation in the number of bones still articulated or separated but in normal anatomical relationship to one another. Ten of the 15 carcasses had portions in articulation or near-articulation. Complete disarticulation of carcasses seems rare, suggesting that simple stripping of muscles was the dominant butchering strategy.
Third, post-butchering disturbance--slow burial or loss of part of the carcass to recent erosion--was identifiable at 6 sites.
These data suggest that Clovis butchering decisions may have been based on the number of consumers present, and that butchers were sensitive to how much labor should be expended before the energetic costs of labor exceeded the caloric value of the meat.
Intelluctual Merit: Hartley Mammoth
When first discovered, the bones of a single mammoth carcass were being exposed; approximately 10 m away was a broken Clovis point. It seemed possible that the two were associated, and that the Hartley Mammoth was another Clovis kill/butchery site. Two field seasons of work were devoted to excavating the carcass with NSF and University of Texas support. The site is located on a down-dropped fault block some 15 m below a bedrock escarpment.
A grid system was laid out over the area, and 8 complete 1-m-by-1-m grid units plus 3 .50 m by 1.0 m half units were exavated. Most were excavated to depths of approximately .45-.50 m below ground surface.
The excavations revealed portions of two mammoths, one subadult and one very young or perhaps nearly full-term calf. Both animals were represented primarily by axial (head, vertebral column, ribs) bones. Post-cranial limb bones were only represented by fragments of the shafts of those bones. Geological investigations suggested that the bones were within a small debris flow--small to medium-sized cobbles were abundant and mixed in with the bones in a chaotic, unsorted fashion. More of both animals remains to be investigated.
Radiocarbon dating of a bone fragment indicated the the subadult mammoth was approximately 32,000-33,000 years old. That is approximately 20,000 years older than the commonly accepted age range for Clovis.
The excavations produced no stone artifcacts in association with the bones, but a number of bone "flakes", ranging from 19 small (< 5cm in maximum dimension) to 23 large (> 5cm up to 15 cm in maximum dimension). Since the mid-1970s, such specimens have been argued by some to be the product of intentional human fracturing of large bones using a percussion technique like that employed for stone. Because many of these "flakes" are dervied from sites dated to 14,000 to 30,000 years old, they have been argued to be the product pre-Clovis occupants of North America. Whether the Hartley Mammoth bone "flakes" are evidence of human occupation of north-central New Mexico more than 30,000 years ago will be the subject of future research.
Broader Impacts
Five graduate students were trained in the techniques of excavation of the Hartley Mammoth, a possible human-proboscidean site. One masters student in UNM's Earth and Planetary Sciences progeram studied the site geomophology and depositional processes for her 2017 thesis. Several field visits were arranged for members of the local Abiquiu, NM, community, and one field trip took place for scientists during the 2016 American Quaternary Association meetings in Santa Fe. A public lecture was presented by the PI to the Abiquiu community in the fall of 2017. A Wordpress page for the site was created in 2015 to spread word of it more broadly.
Posters for the Hartley Mammoth investigations were created and exhibited at the Geological Society of America, Society for American Archaeology, and American Quaternary Association professional meetings in 2015 and 2016.
Last Modified: 08/25/2018
Modified by: Bruce B Huckell
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