Oldest Ice Age ‘mammoth house’ found

Moscow, March 17: Around 25,000 years ago, hunter-gatherers used the bones from 60 mammoths to build a large circular structure in Russia. And no one knows why.

Researchers have excavated the site in an attempt to understand it, but they don’t know why the structure was built, according to a new study.

This isn’t the first “mammoth house” to be found in Russia, but it is the oldest and largest, measuring 41 feet across.

In the 1960s and ‘70s, researchers found similar, smaller buildings at the site, which they dubbed Kostenki 11. It’s 310 miles south of Moscow and now home to

The majority of the bones found at the site investigated, in the Russian Plains, are from mammoths.

a museum, the State Archaeological MuseumReserve Kostenki.

In 2014, researchers found evidence of this structure at the site and

began excavation in 2015, which took three years. A study detailing their findings published this week in the journal Antiquity.

These mammoth bone structures, dating to the Ice Age, have been found across Eastern Europe. But until now, the oldest ones found were dated to 22,000 years ago.

Based on previous discoveries, researchers believe they were constructed by Palaeolithic people to serve as houses, providing refuge during harsh winters. Ice Age winters likely had lows reaching negative four degrees Fahrenheit.

And constructing something this massive out of hundreds of mammoth bones would have taken time. It’s surprising, considering that populations of hunter-gatherers never spent much time in one location.