Mammoth Bone from Hell Gap

Summary

Mammoths and thus mammoth bones are associated with Clovis occupation of North America, while subsequent cultures are associated with Bison antiquus (Paleoindians) or various Holocene faunal species. However, this simple scenario is complicated by occasional occurrences of extinct species in later period assemblages. The Hell Gap site joins this exclusive club with a recent discovery of a mammoth tusk in deposits at Locality I. The Hell Gap site in eastern Wyoming is a stratified Paleoindian multilocality in the midst of mammoth finds, but without a well-defined Clovis component. The purpose of this presentation is to evaluate the context of the tusk object, describe its features and consider its place in our understanding of early Paleoindian existence in North America.

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This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 80th Annual Meeting, San Francisco, CA (2015)

Keywords

Spatial Coverage