Mammoth hunters probably exploited their prey by several means. Animals could have been wounded or immobilized (i.e., cut the Achilles tendon, as has been done by aboriginal hunters of African elephants) and then dispatched when they grew weak. It is also possible that already dead animals were found and butchered. Paleoindian spears often show wear associated with spearing as well as from having been used as a knife. Sometimes bone fragments from the animal itself show that they were intentionally fractures and used in butchering the mammoth.
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Erecting the Mammoth Sculpture at the Archeology Laboratory, Augustana College |
| Text of plaque with Mammoth Sculpture at the Archeology Laboratory, Augustana College |
MAMMOTH: DENIZEN OF THE ICE Mammoths entered the New World approximately 1.7 million years ago and ranged through this hemisphere until their final extinction occurred at the end of the Pleistocene (Ice Age) about 10,000 years ago. The mammoth was the largest land mammal that existed world-wide during the last ice age. This life-size sculptural representation is based on an actual specimen excavated in the White River Badlands of South Dakota at the Lange/Ferguson archeological site. In life this mammoth stood 14 feet at the front shoulder and weighed approximately 9 tons (18,000 lbs.). The sculpture has been left unpainted since mammoth fur recovered in the Soviet Union confirms that these animals had a reddish-brown coat very close to the color of rust. This sculpture is dedicated to the memory of Helen Bernice Hannus (1910-1991), an individual of wisdom and wit whose passing has left an unfilled void.
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