Instagram mammoth pic archaeology mag.

[Fred250]

Supposedly the recovery of butchered mammoth remains. Quite a feat to take something of that size. I’m trying to imagine how many strikes it would take to kill it.

 

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[MAMucker]

Cut an artery and run like hell.

 

[The Grim Reaper]

This is the one they broke into several pieces because they didn't wrap it before bringing it up. The guy running the backhoe jerked it really hard right before setting it on the flatbed and it broke in a few places.

 

[Aurora1959]

Sever the achilles tendon, which will immediately render it immobile due to its size and weight, and wait for it to die of dehydration. Elephants, and presumably mammoth and mastodon, can't walk with only 3 legs.

 

[joshuaream]

I think most modern hunters put a premium on a quick and efficient kill (and not wasting anything.) I don't think ancient hunters could always afford that luxury, or that they needed to.

I imagine a lot of times they would sink a couple of dart points in the lung area, and then just hang back and wait. If the animals were near water or a marsh, the animal probably just stayed there and died hours or days later. Modern elephants will stick around an injured animal, so if mammoths/mastodons/gomphothere were similar to them in that social behavior, that might explain a couple of the multiple animal kill sites. (Get one, see of others stay, dart them, and wait for them to die.)

Big bison jumps out west probably operated similarly, maim a bunch of animals and then butcher them. If the animal is still alive, you've got a bit more time to butcher other animals.