Recent elephant-carcass utilization as a basis for interpreting mammoth exploitation

Studies of the patterned effects of human and non-human utilization of recent elephant carcasses provide context for understanding how similar processes in the past affected mammoth bones. This information might explain similarities and differences among mammoth sites and assemblages in different times and places in prehistory, such as the Pavlovian phase of early Gravettian in central Europe and the Clovis era in North America. Both Pavlovian and Clovis people often left behind sites dominated by proboscidean bones, but appear to have made very different uses of mammoth carcasses. (C) 2013 Elsevier Ltd and INQUA. All rights reserved.