Mastodons originally evolved in Africa about 20 million years ago and later spread into Europe and Asia. With the Bering Land Bridge that once connected Asia and North America, mastodons migrated into North America about 17 million years ago. During the Pleistocene, it ranged from Alaska to Florida. The American Mastodon (Mammut americanum) became extinct about 8,000 years ago.
The American Mastodon generally inhabited forests or woodlands characterized by spruce and evergreen trees.
According to the San Bernardino County Museum display:
“Adult mastodons were too large to have natural predators, although calves would have been meals for giant cave bears and other large carnivores. But once humans arrived on the scene, mastodons were hunted for food.”
A mastodon is different from mammoths and from other elephants in that it has a smaller size and simple, low-crowned teeth. In looking at the differences between mastodons and mammoths, Ian Lange, in his book Ice Age Mammals of North America: A Guide to the Big, the Hairy, and the Bizarre, reports:
“While individual teeth of mastodons have cone-shaped grinding surfaces, the eating surfaces of mammoth teeth are formed of ridges, like those of modern elephants. Mammoth skulls were domed while mastodon skulls were low-browed. And while mammoths were considerably taller, mastodons had proportionally longer and more massive bodies.”
Mastodons and American Indians
About 11,800 BCE, an elderly mastodon which had survived an encounter with an Indian hunter earlier in its life, waded into a small pond near present-day Sequim, Washington where it fell over and died of old age. Indian scavengers quickly butchered the portion of the body which remained above the water, undoubtedly feasting upon mastodon roasts and steaks for several days.
At the Manis Site, the mastodon had the tip of a bone point about the size of a human thumb embedded in a rib—an indication that it had encountered a hunter and had escaped. In their book Archaeology in Washington, Ruth Kirk and Richard Daugherty report:
“The spear had been thrust some time before the animal died; the wound had not been fatal.”
The bone point had been made from a mastodon bone.
At the time the Manis mastodon was butchered, the main mass of the ice field had drawn back to today’s San Juan Islands near the Olympic Peninsula. People at the pond where the mastodon had died could still see remnants of the continental glacier.
In New Mexico, archaeologists at Sandia Cave find evidence that early Indians, often called Paleoindians by some, are utilizing mammoth, mastodon, giant llama, ground sloth, and Bison antiquus. Humans occupied the cave only infrequently for brief periods of time.
In Florida, Indians left some stone tools and a mastodon tusk at the Page-Ladson site. These are dated to about 12,800 BCE. There is also some evidence of dogs at the site. In his book Humans: From the Beginning, Christopher Seddon writes:
“The tusk bears deep grooves, apparently made as it was removed from its socket.”
In Kentucky, at Big Bone Lick site, dated to about 10,000 BCE, archaeologists found mastodon bones as well as Clovis fluted bifaces.
In Missouri, Indian people at the Kimmswick site killed a mastodon. The environment at this site at that time, 9000 BCE, was deciduous woodland with open grassy areas.
In New York, Indian hunters using Clovis technology were hunting mastodons at the Hiscock site at about 8790 BCE.
At the Icehouse Bottom site in Tennessee, dated to about 8000 BCE, Indian people were gathering walnuts and butternuts and were hunting mastodon.
Ancient America
For many thousands of years prior to the European invasion of North America, the ancestors of hundreds of American Indian tribes lived, worked, loved, and flourished on this continent. Ancient America is a series explores topics relating to these ancient peoples. More from this series:
Ancient America: North American Camels
Ancient America: The prehistoric Southwest, 1375-1425 CE
Ancient America: Some Plateau Indian petroglyphs (museum tour)
Ancient America: Northeast Arizona, 560 BCE to 825 CE
Ancient America: A very short overview of the prehistory of the Grand Canyon
Ancient America: A very short overview of Clovis
Ancient America: Kennewick Man (The Ancient One)
Ancient America: Windust Phase Indian Artifacts (Photo Diary)