25,000-year-old mammoth bones reveal culture of ancient humans

Scientists have unearthed the remains of five enormous 25,000-year-old woolly mammoths in Austria — and they appear to have been hunted and butchered by ancient humans.

The mammoths were discovered during an excavation of the Langmannersdorf site, about 40 miles (65 kilometers) west of Vienna; the bones and tusks were clustered in two distinct zones about 49 feet (15 meters) apart, researchers said in a statement.

In one of the two zones, the research team found the mammoth bones of several individuals piled up together, many of which had marks and scars from human tools — a sign they had been butchered — as well as stone tools scattered nearby.

In the second zone, the team unearthed the remains of at least three separate mammoths. They found the fragmented and whole remains of the mammoth's enormous tusks clustered together, separate from the bones, which shows Paleolithic humans were likely processing the mammoths' ivory. This ivory could have been used to make spearheads, the archaeologists suggested.

"The fact that we found not just individual bones here, but intensively used areas in which several animals were processed, has more than exceeded our expectations," Marc Händel, an archaeologist at the Austrian Archaeological Institute of the Austrian Academy of Sciences (ÖAW), said in a statement. Previous evidence has shown that ancient humans used mammoth ivory to craft tools, such as implements to make ropes, ornaments, accessories and spears and arrowheads for hunting.

Woolly mammoths (Mammuthus primigenius) were large, elephant-like mammals that measured about 11 feet tall (3.5 meters) and had huge, curved tusks. They roamed across North America, Europe and Asia during the last ice age, which ended around 11,700 years ago.

These enormous animals were a crucial resource for Paleolithic hunter-gatherers; they provided food, bones for tools and shelter, and hides for warmth. Most went extinct around 10,000 years ago, likely due to climate change and human hunting, but small populations survived on isolated islands until about 4,000 years ago.

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The Langmannersdorf site was first excavated between 1904 and 1907, and evidence of two mammoth hunter camps was unearthed in 1919 and 1920. In the years since, researchers from across Europe have worked at the site to discover more relics, in hopes of better understanding the relationship between ancient humans and woolly mammoths.

Around 25,000 years ago, just before the peak of the last ice age about 20,000 years ago, herds of mammoths are thought to have used the Perschling Valley in Austria as a migration route, where they grazed on grasses and shrubs as they traveled. The discovery of the mammoth processing site in Langmannersdorf indicates that ancient humans understood the annual movement of the mammoths and hunted them specifically when they were passing through the valley, the researchers said.

This discovery therefore gives researchers important insight into the hunting culture of humans during the last ice age.

Researchers at the ÖAW will study the mammoth bones and tusks, as well as the stone tools, to determine more details about the lives of these ancient creatures and the humans who hunted them. The remains will then be stored at the Natural History Museum in Vienna, and others will be displayed at the Perschlingtaler Heimatmuseum (Perschling Valley Local History Museum).