How many elephant kills are 14?: Clovis mammoth and mastodon kills in context

Recent evaluation of the use of Pleistocene megafauna by Clovis hunter-gatherers has suggested that a small number of reliable associations between Clovis artifacts and the remains of Proboscideans are documented, with perhaps as few as 14 occurrences currently known. Specifically, we ask whether 14 is a large or a small number of associations given the spatio-temporal dimensions of the Clovis period in North America. To place these 14 occurrences into context, we compare the time–space density and relative frequency of Clovis Proboscidean-bearing sites to those of Old World contexts. We develop models to identify the variables contributing to the archeological record of Proboscidean site creation, destruction, and sampling. While acknowledging potential biases in the record, comparative analysis suggests that the Clovis archeological record, with the possible exception of Lower Paleolithic of Iberia, indicates the highest frequency of subsistence exploitation of Proboscidea anywhere in the prehistoric world.