Butchered camel bones were found on a Clovis site in southwest Alberta, Canada. These animals have been extinct for thousands of years, gone the way of the Pleistocene megafauna. Here are a few details this one mammal, all gleaned from Kooyman, et al. (2012):
- One of the camel ribs was radiocarbon-dated (calibrated) at 11,005 B.C. (Kooyman, et al. 2012:116).
- Camel tracks and trackways are common at the site (Kooyman, et al. 2012:116).
- Cut marks on the vertabrae show signs of butchering, which the authors indicate exhibit stone tool mark facets and lack other carnivore destruction (Kooyman, et al. 2012:116-120):
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- Deep (Kooyman et al. 2012:119)
- Narrow (Kooyman et al. 2012:119)
- Asymmetrical cut pattern (Kooyman et al. 2012:119)
- Vertical cut wall caused by ventral (flat) tool surface (Kooyman et al. 2012: 119)
- More sloped wall caused by dorsal (Kooyman et al. 2012:119) (dorsal = convex – think back of whale dorsal where the fin is)
- Removed ends when butchering (Kooyman et al. 2012:120)
- No Clovis points were found in direct association with the camel bones (Kooyman, et al. 2012:116).
- However, Clovis points do occur elsewhere on the site and date to a similar time period (Kooyman, et al. 2012:116).
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Reference
Kooyman, Brian, L.V. Hills, Shayne Tolman, and Paul McNeil
2012 Late Pleistocene Western Camel (Camelops Hesternus) Hunting in Southwestern Canada. American Antiquity 77(1):115-124.
Western Camel Hunted in S.W. Canada Around 11,000 Years Ago by Shari Maria Silverman is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License.
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