Naco Mammoth Kill Site
Archaeological site in Arizona, United States
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The Naco Mammoth Kill Site is an archaeological site in southeast Arizona, 1 mile northwest of Naco in Cochise County. The site was reported to the Arizona State Museum in September 1951 by Marc Navarrete, a local resident, after his father found two Clovis points in Greenbush Draw (eroded by the Greenbush Creek, a tributary of the San Pedro river), while digging out the fossil bones of a mammoth. Emil Haury excavated the Naco mammoth site in April 1952.[2][3][4][5] In only five days, Haury recovered the remains of a Columbian Mammoth in association with 8 Clovis points (including the 2 originally found by the Navarettes). The excavator believed the assemblage to date from about 10,000 years Before Present. An additional point was found in the arroyo upstream.[6][7] The Naco site was the first Clovis mammoth kill association to be identified in Arizona. [5] An additional, unpublished, second excavation occurred in 1953 which doubled the area of the original work and found bones from a 2nd mammoth. In 2020, small charcoal fragments were found adhered to a mammoth bone from the site. AMS radiocarbon dating produced a mean date of 10,985 ± 56 years Before Present.[8]
Emil Haury (right) at Naco mammoth kill site, 1952, photograph courtesy Arizona State Museum, University of Arizona.
A Clovis point in situ amidst mammoth bones at the Naco site, 1952, photograph courtesy Arizona State Museum, University of Arizona.
Naco Mammoth Kill Site | |
| Nearest city | Naco, Arizona |
|---|---|
| NRHP reference No. | 76002285[1] |
| Added to NRHP | July 21, 1976 |