The specific proportions — the angle of the tip, the cross-sectional shape, the way the sides converged to the point — were consistent with known bone projectile point typologies from other early American sites.

This was not a natural bone fragment that happened to be pointed.

It was an engineered object with a specific functional design.

What Mastodon Bone Means For The Weapon

The 2023 paper also confirmed and elaborated on the conclusion that the embedded fragments were made from mastodon bone — and specifically from the cortical bone of a mastodon, almost certainly a different individual from the animal whose rib it penetrated.

This finding has several interesting implications that are easy to miss if the focus stays narrowly on the question of whether hunting occurred.