River Paradigm for Sedentary Mammoth Hunters

John Dewar Gleissner 

Simple forensic systems analysis of Upper Paleolithic mammoth procurement, including analysis of foraging radii, taphonomic representation, portability, caloric costs, hunting and transportation energetics, labor economics, socio-economic and personal vulnerability to predators, and material-handling logistics, prove Upper Paleolithic Mammuthus primigenius were not often hunted, scavenged, killed, transported, and butchered on land, nomadic hunting excepted, nor has any comprehensive land-based procurement system yet been shown in archaeological literature regarding significant mammoth bone accumulations. Forensic systems failure analysis results in failure modes at every stage of inchoate land-based acquisition systems associated with significant quantities of mammoth bones.
Upper Paleolithic mammoths were procured, transported, and butchered in navigable rivers throughout Central and Eastern Europe, as clearly shown in three Mezinian tusk ivory process charts from Mezhyrich, Eliseevichi, and Kyiv-Kirilovskaia, the siting and design of multi-purpose mammoth-bone structures, the weight and mass of mammoth carcasses, and the credibility determination in favor of at least three mammoth hunters providing ivory documents against the theories, speculation, categories, inventions, and inchoate models found in scientific literature. The River Paradigm answers fundamental outstanding questions posed by modern archaeologists.
The Kyiv-Kirilovskaia Process Chart was interpreted in detail for the first time, revealing both cold-smoking and fat-rendering operations. Although not absolutely necessary to establish the River Paradigm, river procurement and terrain provide insights and possibilities regarding Paleolithic mammoth hunting and support the workability of the River Paradigm. The common depiction of mammoths attacked on land by anatomically modern mostly male hunters with long spears is wholly inaccurate for the great majority of mammoths killed by humans during the Upper Paleolithic.
The River Paradigm represented the earliest known organized and vertically integrated subsistence system to employ water power in a production line ending at a central location. The three tusk ivory process charts are perhaps the earliest pictographic writing outside caves, the first known documents, and arguably represent the literal dawn of history.