Arizona State Museum, University of Arizona

Arizona 13,000 Years Ago

In 1951, Dr. Emil Haury, Director of the Arizona State Museum, received an
exciting call. Ranchers near Naco, Arizona found two projectile points near
huge bones eroding out of a wash. Check out this slide show to learn what happened.

A Spectacular Discovery

A more interactive version of our diorama

The Diorama in Detail

13,000 years ago Arizona was very different from today. Huge mammoths roamed the landscape and the people who lived here hunted them for food. Follow along as we learn about this exciting chapter in Arizona's history and discover what archaeology can tell us about the past.

(Resource kits produced by Sarah Willwater and Lisa Falk for Museums for Digital Learning, 2022.)

Arizona in the Late Pleistocene Era

Dr. Emil Haury, Director of the Arizona State Museum, received an exciting call. Ranchers near Naco, Arizona found two projectile points near huge bones eroding out of a wash. 

The unusual bones pictured here are the mammoth's teeth!

John Lance with mammoth jaw at AZ FF:9:1 (ASM), Naco. Photographer, E.B. Sayles, 1952 ASM 3145-x-1

Dr. Haury, with a team of University of Arizona faculty and students, rushed to investigate. They didn’t know what they would uncover.

Excavation and mapping of the mammoth Naco site, AZ FF:9:1 (ASM). Photographer, E.B. Sayles, 1952 ASM 3155-x-62

What they excavated was a one-of-a-kind discovery: a mammoth killed by Clovis hunters over 13,000 years ago. 

Emil W. Haury mapping spear points embedded in mammoth bones, Naco excavations, AZ FF:9:1 (ASM). Photographer, E.B. Sayles, 1952 ASM C-71

Archaeologists speculate that the Naco mammoth actually escaped the attack but was mortally wounded by the spear points excavated from between its ribs and vertebrae. This chance discovery is arguably the most spectacular evidence of mammoth hunting by Paleo-Indian people.

Dr. Emil Haury maps the excavation of the Naco mammoth kill site. AZ FF:9:1 (ASM), Naco, AZ. E. B. Sayles, photographer, 1952. ASM C-71

Today the fossilized remains of the Naco mammoth are on display in the Arizona State Museum. If you look closely you can see replicas of the stone projectile points where they were originally located. (Hint: there are 5).

Highlighted in red are 4 of the 5 projectile points, but where is the 5th one?

The 5th projectile point can only be seen from the side, it is located between two of the bones. 

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Arizona in the Late Pleistocene Era

A Spectacular Discovery

The year was 1951