The Mammoth Hunters

"The Mammoth Hunters" is a novel by Jean Auel, part of her Earth's Children series, which focuses on Neanderthals and Cro-Magnons during the Ice Age. The book follows Ayla, a Cro-Magnon woman, and her lover Jondalar as they join a new clan.1

The novel is set in a prehistoric Europe where early humans, including Neanderthals and Cro-Magnons, interacted with megafauna like mammoths. These ancient cultures, such as the Clovis and Folsom complexes, were skilled big-game hunters, relying on animals like mammoths for survival, using their meat, bones, and hides for sustenance, tools, and shelter. The extinction of these large animals, partly due to climate change and human predation, marked the end of this big-game hunting tradition.1234