NPS/Harpers Ferry Center
The Clovis Mammoth Hunters were the earliest known people to use Alibates flint. Living near the end of the Ice Age, around 9500–9000 BC, these big-game hunters shared the Llano Estacado with mammoths, mastodons, straight-horned bison, and other Ice Age animals. They hunted using thrusting spears and atlatls, often tipped with projectile points made from Alibates flint. Stone knives and scrapers helped process game and other resources. Highly mobile, the Clovis people likely followed herds across great distances—caches of their tools have been found more than 300 miles from the flint’s source. After the Clovis came the Folsom people, arriving between 8000 and 6000 BC. Like their predecessors, they lived as hunter-gatherers, but by this time mammoths and many other Ice Age giants were extinct. Instead, Folsom hunters pursued large herds of Bison antiquus—an ancestor of today’s bison, but much larger and more dangerous. Their hunting methods featured a revolutionary weapon: the atlatl and dart. This two-part system—a throwing stick and a long dart—allowed hunters to launch projectiles at much higher speeds than hand-thrown spears. This innovation meant hunters could strike from a safer distance, a major advantage when facing massive bison.
|
Last updated: February 8, 2026