Separated by 13,000 years, in a strange way, the Clovis people faced the same environmental issues we see today: radical climate change, mass extinction and changes to the world.
Though removed by thousands of years, there’s a lot to be learned from the final ancient people of the Pleistocene era. That’s what author Craig Childs and filmmaker Larry Ruiz hope to convey Friday night at the Durango Arts Center.
There, Ruiz will show his film, “Waking the Mammoth,” a documentary looking at mammoths and the ancient peoples that roamed North America at the end of the first ice age.
The film was inspired in 2012 when a friend of Ruiz’s stumbled upon ancient rock art southwest of Bluff, Utah, and decided to burn a life-sized wooden-stick mammoth in honor of the large extinct woolly animal.
“He’s a crazy artist,” Ruiz said from his home in Durango. “And he likes to build things and burn them in effigy. Because he’s a hunter and artist, and rock art expert, he was pretty excited when he discovered that rock art.”
The debate whether the drawing is actually a 13,000-year-old depiction is still raging. On one side, scientists can’t believe something would preserve for that long against the elements. On the other, archaeologists find similarities in the stylistic aspects of other findings in the area.
However, Ruiz and Childs don’t have an opinion either way, since the authenticity of the drawings can’t be proven with techniques available today. Instead, the rock art ignites a much-needed look into the past.
“This film basically goes back 15,000 years ago and compares the people then to people today,” Ruiz said. “People then hunted, gathered, killed, watched extinction and watched massive climate change. That same thing is happening today.”
Childs, more than just an author, has studied the ice age people across the whole continent for years. He said the rock art points out a layer of history most people aren’t familiar with.
“We tend to focus on the last few thousand years, but people were there back to at least 13,000 years ago,” Childs said. “We just have trouble thinking in deep time. We live lives that are so momentary, that considering something beyond your life is difficult. The mammoth, whether real or not, at least puts us back there in that time frame.”
Oddly enough, when considering the Clovis people, Childs is optimistic about the changes occurring in our current climate.
“I look at them, and then look at us, and think, ‘Oh, we’ve been on this boundary before,’” he said. “Whether (studying ice age people) tells us the right thing to do or not, I don’t know. We’re on a much larger scale now, but really, in a way, the scale is the same. The world will change, and it’s the same climate going through yet another significant change.”
Ruiz, too, said ancient artifacts have fascinated him ever since his grandfather took him on walks around Trinidad looking for arrowheads. He said the film just naturally fell into place.
“I remember touching (artifacts) and thinking, ‘Wow, this is 15,000 years old,’” he said. “I always thought it’s a shame to take this stuff home. It should be there.”
The documentary culminates with the celebratory burning of the massive to-scale mammoth near where the rock art was found. Looking back, Ruiz said the event had a powerful impact on him.
As about 300 people circled around the effigy, a flaming spear was thrown right at the mammoth and hit right behind the left front leg, near where the heart would be.
“That’s the kill shot,” Ruiz said. “And people just roared, and I thought, ‘It’s still in our DNA. It’s only been a second of geologic time since we were hunting and gathering. We don’t think it is because we’re all caught up in our society and smartphones, but it’s right there with us.”
Childs agreed. He said though he sees “deep time” better than a lot of people, he’s still subject to the grind of daily routine. His studies of ancient people, just taking a moment to reflect on where we’ve come from, allow him to step out of this time frame.
“We just get tunnel-visioned into our own lives,” he said. “But even if I get stuck in a routine of mortal existence, I’m aware of immortal patterns going on all around me, which I think people seek for different reasons. I seek it so my life has some context outside of just me and my civilization.”
jromeo@durangoherald.com
If you go
“Mammoths in Durango: A Multimedia Adventure into the Ice Age,” a two-part event with author Craig Childs and filmmaker Larry Ruiz, will be held at 7 p.m. Friday at the Durango Arts Center.
The evening will begin with a screening of Ruiz’s film, “Waking the Mammoth,” which examines the era more than 10,000 years ago when humans and mammoths roamed North America. After the film, Childs will present “People at the Beginning of Time: A Journey Through Layers of History in a Storied Land.” Through video, music and spoken word, Childs will lead the audience back to the ice age and challenge the notion of time in the context of people’s lives.
Tickets are $20. For more information, visit www.DurangoArts.org.
