The centerpiece exhibit of the Life in a Cold Climate gallery is the Caribou Kill Diorama, which depicts a chilly day in late autumn approximately 11,000 years ago—a day when a group of people has staged an ambush of half a dozen caribou. 

The location is somewhere close to Mashantucket, territory that our ancestors crisscrossed many times each year in pursuit of resources. It is late fall, the time of year when the caribou are fattest, and the people are eager to get some meat and hides before the harsh winter descends.

The people have succeeded in separating a few caribou from the herd. Children and adolescents wave skins to drive the animals into a natural enclosure, and hunters, working alone or in pairs, rush to spear the trapped animals. The hunters stationed above the caribou use spear-throwers, while those standing close by thrust their spears directly into the animals.

Some distance from the hunters, other members of the group have begun to butcher the caribou. Slices of meat are already roasting over the fire for the group’s meal. Two hungry dire wolves watch from the side, waiting to scavenge any remains.