Mammoths surrounded and killed with spears

Well-preserved mammoth carcasses have provided scientists with unique knowledge about how iceage people killed the huge animals.

Our ancestors hunted all major animals, including the awesome mammoth. Scientists know this, as they have discovered several wellpreserved mammoths in the Siberian permafrost with deep stab wounds and cut marks left by sharp weapons.

One of the dead prehistoric giants, a some 15-year-old male, which was discovered complete with a hump and penis on the Siberian peninsula of Taymyr in 2012 after 45,000 years in the ice, had deep stab wounds caused by spears and stone fragments in its bones. The fragments are probably from spearheads, which were forced into the creature's ribs with tremendous force.

Based on the fossils' wounds and injuries, scientists have reconstructed the hunting method, discovering that the hunters encircled the animal, killing it with their spears.

In 2016, scientists discovered a mammoth bone with a spear hole, indicating that humans have always hunted in the Arctic.