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.
