Ancient Clovis Elephant-Hunting Camp Discovered in Mexico

The jawbone, or mandible, of a gomphothere as it was found,
upside down, at El Fin del Mundo excavation site.
Image Courtesy of Vance T. Holliday and Western Digs.

July 14, 2014.

Blake de Pastino, of Western Digs, has written an interesting article about new evidence of members of the Clovis culture hunting a gomphotheres, an ancestor of modern elephants "once thought to have vanished from North America before humans arrived".

"All told, the evidence emerging from El Fin Del Mundo promises to revise our understanding of the continent’s most influential native cultures, from its practices and its range to the ancient environment with which it interacted so successfully."

-Blake de Pastino, Western Digs.

To read the full article, click here.

"Human (Clovis)-gomphothere (Cuvieronius sp.) association ~13,390 calibrated yBP in Sonora, Mexico."

• Guadalupe Sanchez, Vance T. Holliday, Edmund P. Gaines, Joaquín Arroyo-Cabrales, Natalia Martínez-Tagüeña, Andrew Kowler, Todd Lange, Gregory W. L. Hodgins, Susan M. Mentzer, and Ismael Sanchez-Morales
• Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
• June 19, 2014.
• "Archaeological evidence from Sonora, Mexico, indicates that the earliest widespread and recognizable group of hunter-gatherers (“Clovis”) were in place ∼13,390 y ago in southwestern North America. This is the earliest well-documented population on the continent and suggests that the unique Clovis artifact style originated in the southwest or south central part of the continent, well south of the Arctic gateways into the continent. These hunters targeted gomphotheres, an elephant common in south and central North America, but unknown in association with humans or at this late age in North America."

For more information about the Clovis culture, visit:

• Genome of America's Only Clovis Skeleton Reveals Origins of Native Americans and Stirs Ethics Debate
• February 24, 2014.
• The Clovis Point and the Discovery of America's First Culture
• Smithsonian Magazine, November 2013.
• When Did People First Discover America?
• Ohio History Connection Archaeology Blog, January 6, 2014.
• Clovis Points- Paleoindian Boy Scout Knives?
• Ohio History Connection Archaeology Blog, September 8, 2013.