(June 22, 2013 at 12:39 pm)CapnAwesome Wrote: I've long thought that human hunting was probably not the main cause of mammoth extinction simply because every time I look at an elephant in real life the idea of me and a group of men taking them down with primitive spears would be extremely difficult. Consider how much easier it must have been to hunt other animals.
Right. Too many assumptions are treated as "settled" by what is found. For example, a large spear point is found stuck in a mammoth carcass and the conclusion is made that some guy walked up to it and stabbed it with a large thrusting spear.
No doubt that could have been the coup de grace but casualties from hunting in that manner would have been prohibitive for a small group. Far better to start off at a distance and use atlatl darts or something resembling a javelin to wound the animal - preferably in the back legs - and follow it until it collapses. THEN some guy moves in for the killing thrust.
I always laugh when they assume that primitive hunters restricted themselves to one type of weapon. This was not recreation for these people - it was a question of survival. They would have brought every weapon they could carry and then decide what to use when the target was identified.
