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Archaeology or archeology[a] is the study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture. The archaeological record consists of artifacts, architecture, biofacts or ecofacts, sites, and cultural landscapes.

Archaeology has various goals, which range from understanding culture history to reconstructing past lifeways to documenting and explaining changes in human societies through time.

The discipline involves surveying, excavation, and eventually analysis of data collected, to learn more about the past. In broad scope, archaeology relies on cross-disciplinary research. Read more...

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To kill mammoths in the Ice Age, people used planted pikes, not throwing spears, researchers say (phys.org)

submitted 4 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

23 comments fedilink hide all child comments

How did early humans use sharpened rocks to bring down megafauna 13,000 years ago? Did they throw spears tipped with carefully crafted, razor-sharp rocks called Clovis points? Did they surround and jab mammoths and mastodons? Or did they scavenge wounded animals, using Clovis points as a versatile tool to harvest meat and bones for food and supplies?

UC Berkeley archaeologists say the answer might be none of the above.

Instead, researchers say humans may have braced the butt of their pointed spears against the ground and angled the weapon upward in a way that would impale a charging animal. The force would have driven the spear deeper into the predator's body, unleashing a more damaging blow than even the strongest prehistoric hunters would have been capable of on their own.

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[–] [email protected] 0 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Goading or herding a mammoth into a pre-planted pikewall seems much more likely than a single hunter planting a spear and waiting for a charge.

Narrow or raised terrain, hunting blinds or other kinds of prepared cover could also make a more in the moment sort of plant-and-dodge tactic less likely to result in injury.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Just hiding those pikes in some shrubbery would do the trick.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 4 months ago

A nice one. Next to this one here. Now GO! Or we shall say Ni to you a second time!