THE CLOVIS SPEAR SYSTEM
This hunter is preparing to attack the mammoth with the ingenious and lethal Clovis composite spear system, shown in Coming Into America. At the tip is a large but thin, razor-sharp barbed stone point, its fluted base set into a short, hollow and barbed bone holder, which has been jammed onto a bone or ivory foreshaft, which in turn is bound to a long and heavy wooden spear shaft. The spear is to be launched with the aid of a spear thrower or atlatl, in this case a loop of leather, which acts as an extension to the throwing arm. Tremendous force can be generated with such a system, sufficient to penetrate even the tough hide of a mammoth. After the shot is taken, the shaft with foreshaft will fall away, or must be pulled out by the hunter, leaving the barbed spear point and bone holder in the animal. The hunter can then reload and take another shot.

Excavations have yielded many Clovis spear points and bone or ivory foreshafts. Bone spear point holders have also been found, but no wooden spear shafts have survived. However, archaeologists believe that most Clovis projectile points are too large to have been used as arrowheads, and must have been intended for spears. No Clovis atlatls have been found, but the spear-throwing technique was in use at least 8,000 years ago and there is no reason to think Clovis people could not have used it. Indeed, it's hard to imagine bringing down an animal the size of a mammoth without being able to generate the kinds of impact forces that atlatls made possible.