The team studied bone fragments embedded in a mastodon rib bone which was first discovered by Carl Gustafson, who conducted an excavation at the Manis site in Washington state from 1977 to 1979.

Using a CT scan and 3D software, PH.D. Michael Waters, distinguished professor of anthropology and director of Texas A&M’s Center for the Study of First Americans, and his team isolated all the bone fragments to prove it was the tip of a weapon – a projectile made from the bone of Mastodon, prehistoric relatives of elephants.

This is this the oldest bone projectile point in the Americas and represents the oldest direct evidence of mastodon hunting in the Americas.”

Waters said at 13,900 years old, the Manis point is 900 years older than projectile points found to be associated with the Clovis people, whose stone tools he has also studied.

“This shows that the First Americans made and used bone weapons and likely other types of bone tools.”

“We show that the bone used to make the point appears to have come from the leg bone of another mastodon and was intentionally shaped into a projectile point form,” Waters said.

“The spear with the bone point was thrown at the mastodon. It penetrated the hide and tissue and eventually came into contact with the rib. The objective of the hunter was to get between the ribs and impair lung function, but the hunter missed and hit the rib.”

Not much is known about the people who used the Manis spear point other than they were some of the first Indigenous people to enter the Americas. Waters said the Manis site and others are giving archaeologists some insight.

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