A pre-Clovis crime scene
On August 8, 1977, Emanuel "Manny" Manis was digging a pond with a backhoe on his property near Sequim, Washington, when he uncovered two massive tusks. This discovery led to an excavation by Washington State University archaeologist Dr. Carl Gustafson. The team unearthed the partial skeleton of an American mastodon (Mammut americanum), but one particular bone held a startling secret: a rib with a foreign object embedded within it.
Initial analysis suggested the object was the tip of a projectile point. Radiocarbon dating of the mastodon remains yielded an age of approximately 13,800 years. This date placed the find about 800 years before the appearance of the Clovis people, a culture long considered to be the first human inhabitants of North America. Gustafson's assertion that this represented direct evidence of humans hunting mastodons in pre-Clovis times was met with considerable scientific skepticism for decades. No stone tools, typical of other early American sites, were found with the skeleton.
Decades later, new technology provided definitive answers. A team led by Dr. Michael Waters of Texas A&M University re-examined the artifact. High-resolution CT scans and 3D modeling confirmed the embedded object was a projectile point, sharpened by human hands. DNA analysis and protein sequencing of the point revealed it was made from the bone of another mastodon. The evidence was clear: a hunter 13,800 years ago had launched a spear tipped with a bone point from one mastodon into the side of another.
Evidence of an ancient hunt
The Manis Mastodon shows a late Pleistocene interaction. The bone point penetrated the rib about 2.15 cm, and analysis of the wound shows bone growth around the injury. This healing indicates the mastodon did not die from this specific attack but survived for several months afterward. The remains found at the site represent only about half of the mastodon's skeleton. The bones from the animal's right side were found broken and scattered at a slightly higher elevation, suggesting the carcass was butchered by the hunters.
The discovery is one of the oldest confirmed archaeological sites in the Americas, providing direct evidence of megafauna hunting two millennia before the well-documented Clovis culture. The Manis point itself is now the oldest known bone projectile point found in the Americas. Its shape is broad and thin, distinct from the cylindrical bone points used later by Clovis hunters.
The dig, which continued for eight years under Gustafson, eventually uncovered the partial remains of two more mastodons at the site, along with bones from bison and caribou. Pollen samples taken from the same geological layer as the primary mastodon were predominantly from sedges and cattails, indicating a treeless, boggy environment shortly after the retreat of the glaciers.