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CLOVIS POINT
LANGE-FERGUSON SITE
PINE RIDGE, SOUTH DAKOTA
12,000 YEARS AGO
COPYRIGHT
JUNE 30, 2005 PETER A. BOSTROM
CAST ILLUSTRATED
CAST
#P-55
This fluted point was found during the excavation of the Lange- Ferguson
mammoth kill site on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota.
Clovis hunters apparently either killed or scavenged two mammoths in
what was at that time either a marsh or bog. One of the animals was an
adult and one a juvenile. (Hannus 1990:52)
Four stone artifacts found with the bones of these
mammoths. Three fluted points were found. Two are complete and one was a
broken base. The other stone artifact was a simple flake. Two bifacially
flaked bone cleavers made form the mammoths’ scapula were also found.
There was use wear on the edges of both of these bone artifacts. (Hannus
1990:61)
This is the smallest of the three fluted points found
on the Lange-Ferguson site. It is made of reddish brown chert and
measures 1 7/16 inches (37 mm) long, 13/16 inch (20 mm) wide and ¼ inch
(6 mm) thick.
Mammoth kill sites in the New World are very rare.
The remains of approximately 38 mammoths killed or scavenged by Clovis
hunters are all that are recorded to 1978 (Saunders 1978). This is less
than would be found on one good site in the Ukraine. In Central Europe,
the Central Russian Plain and the Ukraine, archaeological research
documents 50,000 years of considerable reliance on mammoths. These
people used the bones to build shelters, as a fuel source, workbenches,
tools and engraved or sculpted art. (Hannus 1990:49)
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