A Mexican mammoth trap

In Tultepec, the trap discovered by archaeologists contained the remains of 14 mammoths. • AFP

A mammoth trap in Mexico! It must have required a certain logistics which obviously worked, since researchers unearthed 800 bones there belonging to 14 of these giant animals. It is, according to them, the largest discovery of mammoth bones in history and the first trap of its kind made by man. It was in Tultepec in the north of Mexico City, near the site where the capital's new airport is being built, that paleontologists and archaeologists from the Inah (National Institute of Anthropology and History) in Mexico City found these remains. impressive. The site was to serve as a dump, before revealing this amazing cemetery.

In any case, the mammoths did not arrive there by chance. Prehistoric hunters would have made the traps 14,000 years ago and used them for 500 years. They dug two large pits 25m in diameter, with walls 1.7m deep. They lured the mammoths there and attacked them. The skulls of the animals bear spear marks proving that they were killed by human hands. It seems that these consumed all the edible parts of the pachyderm, the flesh and the organs. The bones of one of the mammoths are arranged in a particular way, suggesting that a ritual may have been followed.

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At least five herds cohabited with men and bison in this area. They were able to take refuge there after the eruption of the Popocatépetl volcano, which is still active. The basement of Mexico City, an overpopulated megalopolis, must be full of bones of this type, today unreachable. Thus, in 1970, during the work necessary for the construction of the metro, the remains of a mammoth were unearthed in the north of the capital. Contrary to popular belief, mammoths were not only present in the coldest regions, even if the last ones died out in Siberia 4000 years BC.