Archaeologists at the Langmannersdorf an der Perschling site in Lower Austria found bones belonging to five mammoths as well as evidence of how prehistoric people processed their remains.
ÖAW-ÖAI/Marc HändelThese mammoth bones add to earlier discoveries of similar remains made at the site.
Archaeologists have long known that Langmannersdorf an der Perschling in Lower Austria was rich with mammoth remains. However, a recent excavation of the site surpassed all expectations. During this study, a team of researchers uncovered bones from at least five mammoths dating back 25,000 years, as well as evidence of how ancient people used the creatures’ meat and tusks.
This discovery offers fascinating insight into how prehistoric people interacted with their environment, from how they butchered mighty mammoths to how they processed the ivory of their prey.
The Mammoth Bones Discovered In Austria
According to a press release from the Austrian Academy of Sciences (ÖAW), the mammoth discovery was made at the Langmannersdorf an der Perschling site, located between St. Pölten and Tulln in Lower Austria. Mammoth remains have been found here before, and archaeologists were thrilled to uncover the bones of more mammoths during their most recent excavation.
ÖAW-ÖAI/Marc HändelArchaeologists found two groups of mammoth bones about 50 feet apart.
The mammoth remains, which are some 25,000 years old, were found in two zones roughly 50 feet (15 meters) apart. The bones were stacked in layers, and archaeologists found stone tools in between the two zones.
As the archaeologists discovered, the two zones seemed to serve different purposes. In one, bones from at least two separate mammoths showed signs of dismemberment. In the other, the bones of at least three mammoths, including “complete and fragmented tusks,” were discovered, suggesting that the area was used to process the mammoths’ ivory.
“In this time period 25,000 years ago ivory was mainly used for the production of armatures (ivory points) and tools,” Marc Händel of the Austrian Archaeological Institute of the Austrian Academy of Sciences told All That’s Interesting in an email. “There was also production of adornments but this was by far not as common as a few thousand years earlier in the preceding Gravettian.”
ÖAW-ÖAI/Marc HändelArchaeologists examining a mammoth tusk at the site. They believe that prehistoric hunters processed ivory here.
In the press release, he continued: “The fact that we are not just finding individual bones here, but intensively used areas in which several animals were processed, has more than exceeded our expectations.”
Indeed, these discoveries have added to the long and rich history of the Langmannersdorf an der Perschling site.
The History Of The Langmannersdorf An Der Perschling Site
The mammoths butchered at Langmannersdorf an der Perschling lived some 25,000 years ago, just before the peak of the last Ice Age. Then, mammoth herds roamed the plains of central Europe, frequently shadowed by bands of prehistoric human hunters. The plethora of bones found at Langmannersdorf an der Perschling suggests that these hunters understood mammoth migration routes.
Some 4,000 years ago, mammoths went extinct. (Though there are those today currently working to revive the woolly mammoth.) But the Langmannersdorf an der Perschling site preserved their memory.
Thomas Quine/Wikimedia CommonsA replication of a woolly mammoth.
Excavations at the site began between 1904 and 1907 and were expanded between 1919 and 1920. Now, they’re continuing, but today’s researchers have more tools to better understand what they find. Archaeologists are not only analyzing “stone tools and butchery traces” but also “ancient DNA and stable isotopes” from the bones and teeth of the mammoths. Other methods, like paleoenvironmental reconstructions, also help paint a more comprehensive picture of what life was like 25,000 years ago.
As such, the discovery of the mammoth remains at Langmannersdorf an der Perschling adds to the impressive heritage of this prehistoric site. Not only are the remains evidence of human hunting, but they also show what early humans did with the mammoths they killed. Alongside processing the animals for meat, hunters also methodically used the mammoths’ tusks to make weapons and tools from ivory.
“The site is highly interesting and relevant because it is the youngest site in Central Europe that shows large accumulations of mammoth bones,” Händel told All That’s Interesting. “Given the setting and sediment context, there was no serious post-occupational movement of material, so that everything we find is basically just as the hunter-gatherers left it behind 25,000 years ago.”
The Langmannersdorf an der Perschling site in Austria is thus something of a time machine, allowing modern humans to look back at a time 25,000 years ago when mammoths thundered across the European plains and bands of determined hunters followed in their wake.
After reading about the mammoth remains unearthed at a site in Austria, enjoy this collection of terrifying prehistoric creatures that weren’t dinosaurs. Or, discover the story of terror birds, the predators that dominated the skies of South America during the Cenozoic Era.
