Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Mexican mammoth trap provides first evidence of prehistoric hunting pits

theguardian.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

31–40 of 64 posts

Re: Mexican mammoth trap provides first evidence of prehistoric hunting pits

#31

Post by burtonator »

thrower123 wrote: post #21
londons_explore wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'd be interested to see ancient solutions to this. For example, if you were to tie the mammoth down, you might be able to cut off a few legs and eat them, while bandaging up the mammoth to keep it alive for a week or so till you kill it and eat the rest.

I can't imagine trying to deal with a mammoth. Especially with only stone cutting tools. The only thing I can think of would be luring one near a winter camp and killing it nearby, when it would be cold enough to keep or freeze. Even if you could butcher the several tons of meat and get it dried or smoked in time, transport and storage would be huge problems. It's enough of an ordeal to process a moose, with modern t…

> Especially with only stone cutting tools.

If they were using obsidian other than the issue of constantly having to knap new blades it should have been somewhat easy to work with.

The only reason we don't use this in modern times is that the blades break apart over the long term.

Re: Mexican mammoth trap provides first evidence of prehistoric hunting pits

#32

Post by GuiA »

londons_explore wrote: post #19
andrewstuart wrote: post #12

Presumably there would have been a giant feast afterwards because the meat doesn't keep. Would have been fun to attend.

I'd be interested to see ancient solutions to this. For example, if you were to tie the mammoth down, you might be able to cut off a few legs and eat them, while bandaging up the mammoth to keep it alive for a week or so till you kill it and eat the rest.

There’s a device called Burger on the Go which allows one to obtain six hamburgers (or twelve sliders) from a horse without killing the animal.

Re: Mexican mammoth trap provides first evidence of prehistoric hunting pits

#33

Post by davidw »

burtonator wrote: post #29

Regardless of the scientific or historical significant here; imagine how amazing it would have been to be a prehistoric hunter and to kill one of these. It's like the modern version of winning the lottery. One of these could feed your family for the entire winter.

> One of these could feed your family for the entire winter.

Aaawwwwww, dad, mammoth meat agaaaaain?

Re: Mexican mammoth trap provides first evidence of prehistoric hunting pits

#34

Post by [deleted] »

dsfyu404ed wrote: post #20
RcouF1uZ4gsC wrote: post #3

> Hunters may have used torches to scare the mammals into the area with the traps, which are about 6ft (1.70m) deep and 25 yards in diameter, but one of the skulls found also had marks of a spear wound on the front. I find humans amazing. An adult mammoth is something even the more largest predators would not attempt to hunt. And yet, here is a band of puny 2 legged mammals armed with sticks with a flint at the end,…

>I find humans amazing. An adult mammoth is something even the more largest predators would not attempt to hunt. And yet, here is a band of puny 2 legged mammals armed with sticks with a flint at the end, hunting and killing masses of these mighty beasts. Humans are the only animal with the ability to communicate complex abstract future plans (e.g. "today we all shore up the pit, tomorrow you guys wait over there and…

[deleted]

Re: Mexican mammoth trap provides first evidence of prehistoric hunting pits

#35

Post by nicoburns »

dsfyu404ed wrote: post #20
RcouF1uZ4gsC wrote: post #3

> Hunters may have used torches to scare the mammals into the area with the traps, which are about 6ft (1.70m) deep and 25 yards in diameter, but one of the skulls found also had marks of a spear wound on the front. I find humans amazing. An adult mammoth is something even the more largest predators would not attempt to hunt. And yet, here is a band of puny 2 legged mammals armed with sticks with a flint at the end,…

>I find humans amazing. An adult mammoth is something even the more largest predators would not attempt to hunt. And yet, here is a band of puny 2 legged mammals armed with sticks with a flint at the end, hunting and killing masses of these mighty beasts. Humans are the only animal with the ability to communicate complex abstract future plans (e.g. "today we all shore up the pit, tomorrow you guys wait over there and…

Whales and orcas also seem to be able to coordinate in this way.

Re: Mexican mammoth trap provides first evidence of prehistoric hunting pits

#36

Post by j8014 »

andrewstuart wrote: post #12

Presumably there would have been a giant feast afterwards because the meat doesn't keep. Would have been fun to attend.

I would assume that they setup shop prior to hunting and it was a whole group/village affair to process and preserve the meat. When I grew up we would hunt and process all the deer killed together as a family. I started around 6yrs old, my duties were removing the "silver skin" with a fillet knife and doing any other menial task like manually cranking the meat grinder. Everyone had tasks, and it was a pretty great family/bonding experience with my grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins. It was the same for all the other food we would harvest and preserve. I miss those times.

Re: Mexican mammoth trap provides first evidence of prehistoric hunting pits

#37

Post by huherto »

mc32 wrote: post #16
huherto wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As an interesting cultural bullet. The American Cowboy tradition is heavily influenced by the Northern-Mexican Vaqueros.

What about gauchos? Argentina used to supply a lot of beef to the word such that they had been prosperous at one time.

Vaqueros, Gauchos and Llaneros(Venezuela) probably have the same origin in horse riding country side people on the Iberian Península. But I doubt the Gauchos influenced the Cowboys since they are far, far away.

Re: Mexican mammoth trap provides first evidence of prehistoric hunting pits

#38

Post by Baeocystin »

saagarjha wrote: post #15
reggintoggaf wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They had larger brains than us.

I think the generally this sort of comparison is based on the brain:body size ratio.

I could be mistaken, but IIRC, Neanderthals had larger brains than homo sapiens sapiens even when taking body mass in to account.

Re: Mexican mammoth trap provides first evidence of prehistoric hunting pits

#39

Post by catalogia »

reggintoggaf wrote: post #6
RcouF1uZ4gsC wrote: post #3

> Hunters may have used torches to scare the mammals into the area with the traps, which are about 6ft (1.70m) deep and 25 yards in diameter, but one of the skulls found also had marks of a spear wound on the front. I find humans amazing. An adult mammoth is something even the more largest predators would not attempt to hunt. And yet, here is a band of puny 2 legged mammals armed with sticks with a flint at the end,…

They had larger brains than us.

The mammoth traps in question are from about 15,000 years ago. Neanderthals went extinct something like 40,000 years ago.

Neanderthals were more ancient to the people that made these traps than the traps are to us. (Also, I'm unaware of any evidence of Neanderthals in the Americas.)

Re: Mexican mammoth trap provides first evidence of prehistoric hunting pits

#40

Post by Razengan »

RcouF1uZ4gsC wrote: post #3

> Hunters may have used torches to scare the mammals into the area with the traps, which are about 6ft (1.70m) deep and 25 yards in diameter, but one of the skulls found also had marks of a spear wound on the front. I find humans amazing. An adult mammoth is something even the more largest predators would not attempt to hunt. And yet, here is a band of puny 2 legged mammals armed with sticks with a flint at the end,…

Don't chimpanzees etc. also coordinate hunting/raiding parties?

I also recall a segment from BBC's Blue Planet, where an octopus and another fish whose name I cannot recall (grouper?), two entirely different species, communicate with each other via the color of their skin to surround and trap prey.

> Our most amazing ancestors were not kings and emperors, but rather these pre-historic hunters and gatherers who carved out a niche as alpha predators using brains, language, and primitive tech.

Of course. What profoundly intrigues me though, is trying to imagine what it must have been like to be -conscious- even before that primal epoch:

To be just on the cusp of awareness and intelligence.

To have thoughts and desires and fears and hopes and loves and hates and plans and dreams, but not knowing what to do with them, or being able to communicate them.

We spent tens of thousands of years being helpless against the environment, against hunger, disease, predators, against each other's instincts and urges.

Imagine being left behind during a hunt, broken and bleeding out.. All the individual suffering that has taken place on this planet, all the sentient thoughts that died alone and confused.

Then imagine how many other worlds out there must be going through the same development right at this very moment.

Post reply on HN