Early humans were 'big game hunters' with mammoth appetites, new research shows

New research examining the eating habits of the people who lived in North America during the Ice Age suggests they were skilled hunters with meaty, mammoth appetites.

A study published in the journal Science Advances provides new insight on the diet of the Clovis people — an ancient culture of early humans who spread rapidly across the continent around 13,000 years ago.

The peer-reviewed research suggests these early groups of highly transient hunter-gatherers were carnivores who ate a diet consisting mostly of mammoth meat, followed by other "megafauna" including elk and bison. 

The new insights came from a chemical analysis of the bones of a Clovis child, the only human remains of the period to survive, and a cache of Ice Age animal fossils unearthed from Alberta and sites across the northwestern Great Plains.

Archeologist James Chatters of McMaster University, who co-led the research, said the study shows the Clovis were "super carnivores" who took advantage of the abundance of giant animals on the landscape. 

"The result came out strongly supporting the idea that Clovis people, at least in the western part of the continent, were predominantly big game hunters," Chatters said in an interview with CBC. 

"If you are the first people on the landscape, it makes the most economic sense to go after the largest food packages."

Mammoth meat made up around 40 per cent of the Clovis diet, followed by elk at around 15 per cent. Bison, camel and wild horses were on the menu but contributed far less.

Small animals made up only four per cent of their diet, the study suggests. 

Chatters said seeing such a high result for mammoth meat was an "aha moment" that bolstered the Clovis people's reputation as skilled hunters — not foragers.

"That was a real major reward," he said. "It's direct evidence of their way of life." 

Bone chemistry

Known for their distinctive stone tools, the Clovis people emerged toward the end of the last Ice Age, when much of the globe was cloaked in ice and the areas of North America untouched by glaciers remained a frigid, arid grassland. 

The only human remains surviving from the period belong to a child, known as Anzick-1, who died at 18 months. His remains were found in 1968 in western Montana, alongside a cache of tools and elk antlers.

Researchers created a profile of the Clovis diet by analyzing isotopic data of the child's remains.

The food you eat leaves a chemical footprint, and by profiling the elements of carbon and nitrogen deposited in the child's bones, researchers garnered direct evidence of his diet. 

The chemical analysis of the child's isotypes also allowed the archeologists to build a profile of what his mother had been eating.

"Because he's nursing, he's living off his mother's tissues, so he's another step up the food chain from his mom," Chatters said. 

"You are what you eat. And in an isotopic sense that's very much true." 

To build dietary profiles, researchers also completed new chemical analyses of fossils from a variety of prey animals, large and small, that may have been on the menu for Clovis people in the West.

Researchers also compared this data to the mother's profile and found her diet was most similar to that of a scimitar cat, a large-toothed feline that preyed heavily on mammoths. 

The fossils were collected from Clovis sites across Alberta, Wyoming and Montana — the range that the boy would have called home.

The bulk of the specimens, including bison, muskox, elk, now-extinct species of camel and native horse, came from existing collections at the Royal Alberta Museum in Edmonton. 

Chris Jass, a curator with the RAM who co-authored the study, said the research would not have been possible without Alberta's sizable cache of Ice Age-era fossils, often unearthed from sand and gravel pits.

He said the study shows the value of museum collections. The specimens safeguarded by institutions like the RAM are not collecting dust but are being preserved for the next big idea to come along, Jass said.

"A lot of people think about museum collections as being like the Raiders of the Lost Ark, where something comes to the museum and it gets put in a dark warehouse, never to see the light of day again," he said. 

"Most of these specimens were collected 30 to 40 years ago. a project like this would have never existed or been dreamt up then.

"As new technologies come along that allows us to answer questions in new and different ways."

Only child

Brian Vivian, a senior archaeologist and partner with the historical resources consulting company Lifeways of Canada, described the research as innovative.

But Vivian, who was not involved in the study, was cautious about its findings as they hinge on the remains of a single individual.

He said painting an accurate picture of the Clovis people has long been complicated due to the lack of archaeological evidence from the period. 

Some questions about the Clovis will remain unanswered until new burial grounds are unearthed, he said.

"Sites from this time period are so rare and so few and so people are really, really pushing the envelope on the directions of research, and they're using some of the most sophisticated research that we can think of to answer these questions," he said. 

"There's real strength to the paper. They've fought to get the evidence where they can."

The research was published in consultation with Indigenous tribes in Idaho, Wyoming and Montana. 

It was a matter of respect, Chatters said, as the study authors were exploring an important question about these ultimate ancestors. 

After decades of research, Chatters said understanding how the Clovis people sustained themselves has made him feel connected to them in a new way. 

"These thoughts come up unbidden about what this family was up to. You're seeing them in your mind's eye as people, as people moving from place to place," he said.

"It's given me a real strong sense of the people."

Quirks and Quarks8:24Early people in North America had mammoth appetites

The people of the Clovis culture, who lived across Ice Age North America 13,000 years ago, left behind many tools and artifacts that suggest they were skilled hunters. And now chemical analysis of the incredibly rare find of bones of a Clovis child has given us the first direct evidence of what they were eating. The research, co-led by James Chatters of McMaster University, revealed they were “super-carnivores” whose diet mostly consisted of mammoth meat, with elk and bison/camel showing up as well. By specializing in hunting megafauna, this would have helped the Clovis people rapidly spread throughout North America. The research was published in the journal Science Advances.