During renovation works in a wine cellar in Gobelsburg, Austria, local winegrower Andreas Pernerstorfer stumbled upon a remarkable find: a set of mammoth bones. These remains, estimated to be between 30,000 and 40,000 years old, could represent at least three individual animals.
Pernerstorfer reported the discovery to the Austrian Federal Monuments Office, which then referred him to the Archaeological Institute of the Austrian Academy of Sciences (OeAW). The OeAW described the find as the most significant of its kind in Austria in over a century.
Excavations led by Hannah Parow-Souchon of the OeAW have revealed multiple layers of mammoth bones, along with stone artifacts and charcoal. These latter items have been instrumental in dating the bones. "Such a dense bone layer of mammoths is rare. It's the first time we've been able to investigate something like this in Austria using modern methods," Parow-Souchon stated.
Interestingly, this isn't the first time mammoth bones have been found in Gobelsburg. About 150 years ago, researchers discovered a similar layer of bones, flint artifacts, decorative fossils, and charcoal in an adjacent cellar. The latest discovery could provide new insights into how prehistoric humans hunted mammoths, a topic that remains largely mysterious.
Archaeologists suggest that the location of the bones in Pernerstorfer's cellar might have been a site where the mammoths died, possibly driven into a trap by early humans. Current examinations of the remains aim to uncover more details about this prehistoric period. The bones will eventually be transferred to the Natural History Museum Vienna for restoration.
Earlier this year, another significant discovery of prehistoric animal bones, including those of a cave lion and a mammoth, was made in Paradise Cave (Jaskinia Raj) in Poland's Świętokrzyskie region. This site is one of Poland's most important archaeological locations, though much remains to be learned about it, according to Małgorzata Kot of the University of Warsaw.
