BOARDMAN — R. Michael Gramly, a renowned anthropologist and archeologist, recently spoke in the Lariccia Family Community Center in Boardman Park about hunting and religion in prehistoric American societies.

Gramly was invited by The Mahoning Valley Archeological Society, which sponsored the event. His talk, entitled “Ice Age Ritual and Art in Northern North America,” covered findings at a variety of archeological dig sites, but focused on a dig site at Lower Blue Lick in Kentucky. Daniel Boone used to mine salt there and it was the site of one of the last battles of the American Revolution, Gramly said.

The talk included images of hunting weapons, religious figurines and sled skids, all made from the bones of mastodons and mammoths. These paraphernalia were crafted by hunters 15,000 years ago.

Gramly explained that the “domed head” of the mastodon — the titanic elephant-like animal covered in a red pelt that once populated large parts of the world — was a feature on carved figurines found in both prehistoric Europe and North America. This finding indicates that ancient peoples worshiped the animal they eventually hunted to extinction, Gramly said, and that hunters traveled from the European continent across the ice sheets of the ice age, bringing their religion with them.

Gramly also discussed the gravesite of a prehistoric shaman at an ancient “mineral lick” (a geological feature in which salt and other minerals are exposed) where wild animals would congregate to lick essential minerals from the earth. Mineral licks would have been prime hunting grounds for prehistoric people.

This particular grave included the bones of a woman between 29 and 35 buried on a sled made from mastodon bones and heaped over with religious artifacts. Beside her, archeologists found the skeleton of a dog, Gramly said. Archeologists believed that dogs were “psychopomps,” or creatures that guided the souls of the dead in the underworld, in ancient religions, according to Gramly.

Taken together, this grave indicates a person of great importance to her tribe, and her grave was probably a sign that her tribe claimed the mineral lick as their own hunting ground, Gramly said.

Gramly also corrected misperceptions about paleo-hunting techniques.

Mastodon and mammoth hunters would not try to kill their enormous prey by pursuing them with spears, as is so often portrayed in popular movies and magazines. Popular depictions of mastodon hunters often show them pursuing their enormous prey on foot while throwing spears at them, Gramly said. Paleo-hunters would not have done this because It would have been far too dangerous.

Instead, cut marks on fossils indicate that hunters would distract the animals, enabling a hunter with an axe to sneak up behind the animal and slash its Achillies tendon, he said. Once the animal was crippled, Gramly explained, paleo-hunters would kill the animal by launching obsidian-pointed spears from a handheld lever, called an “atlatl,” which created more force. This form of slaughter was probably a rite of passage for young hunters, he said.

“So, we have highly religious people coming into the New World about 15,000 years ago in pursuit of proboscideans,” Gramly said, referring to the scientific term for animals with trunks such as elephants, mammoths and mastodons, “and they continue their artistic traditions, and they claim these important places like mineral licks and springs with their esteemed dead.”

Gramly became obsessed with archeology when he was 9 and found his first arrowhead on the family farm in Higgins, Pennsylvania. “I suspect my great-uncle put it there,” he said, “but I was hooked.”

This passion took Gramly to a bachelor’s degree in geology from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and a PhD in anthropology from Harvard University.

“Every adult who wants to leave the present world and go into the imaginary world of the past can do this if they want,” Gramly said, explaining the draw of anthropology and archeology. “It’s a remarkable ability we all have in this country to leave this existence and go back into the past,” he said.

“It adds richness and color to our lives, and it adds understanding, just to realize that there was another dimension that lay there before me. I’m talking about real people, the real past,” Gramly said. “These people from 15,000 years ago are my people.”

The Mahoning Valley Archaeological Society is a volunteer organization for anyone who is interested in the past, no matter their experience or knowledge. Anyone is welcome to join, according to MVAS President John Chuey. The MVAS invites speakers, organizes digs and discusses archeology.

“We are all interested in prehistory of Ohio and the world,” Chuey said.

The group was established in 1979. They meet about every two months in the log cabin in Boardman Park. Their next meeting is May 12.

Anyone interested in the MVAS should email Chuey at jchuey2@zoominternet.net.

Have an interesting news story? Email the newsroom at news@vindy.com.