How did ancient people hunt herds of huge bison? Group

The study was carried out in the Gran Dolina car park in Spain.

They found

• the remains of more than 60 bison
• more than 10,000 stone tools

Bison of that time were large and powerful animals - the weight of an adult could reach about 600-900 kilograms, and sometimes even more.

Details

To catch such animals, people needed to:

• act in a co-ordinated way
• herd
• to attack from different directions

One man could not have done it alone.

Almost all tools - about 99 per cent - were made of one kind of stone.

While other materials were available in the region.

Why it matters

Scientists believe that people

• chose the material in advance
• transported it to the hunting ground
• made tools for specific tasks

This suggests planning.

This kind of hunting required

• group co-ordination
• role assignment
• a well thought out strategy

This confirms that ancient people had advanced thinking and social skills.

The discovery shows that:

• humans learnt to work in groups very early on
• complex behaviour emerged hundreds of thousands of years ago
• collective hunting was the key to survival

Source

The study was carried out by scientists from the Spanish National Centre for the Study of Human Evolution (CENIEH). The results are published in the journal Quaternary International.