The Naco and

Lehner Mammoth
Kill Sites
By: Jack Sevier
The Naco
Excavation
• Discovered by Marc and Fred
Navarrete after heavy rains
exposed the site.
• 2 Clovis points excavated ex situ.
• 6 Clovis points excavated in situ.
• Points found both among and in
contact with disarticulated
Colombian mammoth.
Artifacts and
Remains
Dating and
Stratigraphy

• Given the lack of well preserved

organic material, no radiocarbon
dates were recorded with the initial
excavation.
• Soil moisture indicates deposition
during the Estancia Pluvial period
which Dr. Antevs dates to 10,000-
11,000 BP.
• This date would be revised to
13,000 by the excavation of the
Lehner site.
• The site itself is on a gravel sand bar
underneath alluvial clays.
The Lehner
Excavation
Artifacts and Remains

• The wide variety of animal remains in

different stratigraphic positions indicates
sequential, not simultaneous hunting events.
• Like Naco, a wide variety of points were used
by members of the same band.
• Prescience of tapir indicates a more humid
environment than modern AZ.
• Charcoal of Pine, Oak, and Ash.
Dating and Stratigraphy

• Arroyo itself comprised of a

gravely-sand bank filled with
alluvial clays.
• Artifacts were found in and
beneath a black, sandy loam
that was believed to have been
deposited during the Bølling-
Allerød interval between
12,890-14,690 BP, as expected
for a Clovis site.
Conclusions
• Clovis hunters would use a wide variety of points against a wide variety of animals and a level of
variation should be expected amongst bands and individuals.
• The southwest was more humid in the past than previously expected and the marshes in
southern Arizona were capable of sustaining populations of mammoth, bison, and tapir.
• The Naco and Lehner sites were the southwestern limit of Clovis peoples at the time of their
discovery.
Relevant Sources
Antevs, E. (1959). Geological Age of the Lehner Mammoth Site.
American Antiquity, 25(1), 31-34.
Haury, E., Antevs, E., & Lance, J. (1953). Artifacts with Mammoth
Remains, Naco, Arizona. American Antiquity, 19(1), 1-24.
Haury, E., Sayles, E., & Wasley, W. (1959). The Lehner Mammoth
Site, Southeastern Arizona. American Antiquity, 25(1), 2-30.
Haury, E. W. (1952). The Naco Mammoth. Kiva, 18(3/4), 1–19.
Lance, J. (1959). Faunal Remains from the Lehner Mammoth Site.
American Antiquity, 25(1), 35-42.