Mammoths and Mastery: Giant Pits Unearth Prehistoric Human Effort to Domesticate Woolly Giants More Than 15,000 Years Ago in Mexico

Mexican anthropologists say they have found two pits built by humans and dug 15,000 years ago to trap mammoths.

Researchers at Mexico’s National Institute of Anthropology and History said Wednesday that the pits were discovered during excavations on land that was to be used as a garbage dump.

The pits, filled with the remains of at least 14 mammoths, were found in the Toltepec neighborhood just north of Mexico City. Some of the animals were apparently sacrificed.

Mexican anthropologists say they have found two pits built by humans dug 15,000 years ago to trap mammoths

Photograph from Mexico’s National Institute of Anthropology (INAH) shows mammoth tusks in Tυltepec, Mexico.

An expert working with mammoth bopes in Toltepec, Mexico, where the bopes of at least 14 mammoths, believed to have lived more than 14,000 years ago, were found in what is believed to be the first discovery of a human-set mammoth trap.

Researchers from Mexico’s National Institute of Anthropology and History said the pits were discovered Wednesday during excavations on land that was to be used as a garbage dump.

The pits were about six feet deep and 25 yards in diameter. The researcher said hunters may have chased the mammoths into the traps.

Remains of two other species that disappeared in America were also found: a horse and a camel.

The pits were about six feet deep and 25 yards in diameter. The researcher said hunters may have chased the mammoths into the traps.

Remains of two other species that disappeared in America were also found: a horse and a camel.

It was unclear whether plans for the landfill would go ahead.