Naco Mammoth-Kill Site

The Naco Mammoth Kill Site is an archaeological site in southeast Arizona, near Naco, Arizona. 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, while digging out the fossil bones of a mammoth. Emil Haury excavated the Naco mammoth site in April 1952. In only five days, Haury recovered the remains of a Columbian Mammoth that had been killed by the use of at least 8 Clovis points about 10,000 years ago. The Naco site was the first Clovis mammoth kill association to be identified.

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.