Giant sloths and mastodons lived with humans for millennia in the Americas

Re:Giant sloths and mastodons lived with humans for millenni... by AlotOfReading on Wednesday December 25, 2024 @11:30AM (#42509542)

Lithics were, broadly speaking, more akin to how we treat plastics than metal tools. Lithic production results in enough waste that archaeologists give the waste a special name ("debitage") and even use it for destructive testing that would be unthinkable for more significant / less voluminous artifacts.

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Re:Giant sloths and mastodons lived with humans for millenni... by ChrisMarshallNY on Wednesday December 25, 2024 @11:53AM (#42509697)

Thanks. Was not aware.

The other possibility, is that most of their tools were composed of biodegradable stuff, like wood, bones, and shells.

In Africa, they used wood and raw iron for their stuff (I have spears, shields, and arrows, from there). That doesn't tend to age well.

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Re:Giant sloths and mastodons lived with humans for millenni... by AlotOfReading on Wednesday December 25, 2024 @01:00PM (#42510065)

That leaves other evidence that's been looked for. Additionally, the Eurasian cultures that peopled the Americas are all known to have been heavy lithic users.

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Re:Giant sloths and mastodons lived with humans for millenni... by ChrisMarshallNY on Wednesday December 25, 2024 @01:06PM (#42510117)

Somewhere, I have an old stone hand axe. It's really well-made. Not sure where it's from, but I believe it came from a European Stone Age dig, about fifty years ago (probably stolen. People weren't so circumspect, in those days).

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