The 13,900-Year-Old Mastodon Rib Found With A Bone Point Still Inside — And The CT Scan That Put Hunters Before Clovis
The Manis solution was to make a point from mastodon bone — dense, hard material shaped to a penetrating tip.
The mechanical properties are different: bone is not as sharp-edged as fine-grained stone, but it is tough in ways that stone is not.
A Clovis point, if it strikes bone at an oblique angle, may shatter or deflect.
A bone point, while it will break under direct impact against bone — as the Manis tip demonstrates — may be more forgiving of off-target hits against muscle or cartilage.
The two technologies reflect different approaches, different raw material constraints, and possibly different hunting methods.