A MAMMOTH MYSTERY
Mammoth-bone circles built in Russia around 22,000 years ago, at the approach of the last Ice Age, are well known to archaeologists and are usually interpreted, due to the evidence found at them, as dwelling and refuge sites constructed against the increasingly harsh, frigid conditions. But a site first discovered in 2014 presents something else. It is near Kostenki, Voronezh Oblast, 560km (350 miles) south of Moscow, on the banks of the River Don. This area is rich in Palaeolithic sites, and the recently discovered feature is the third mammoth-bone circle to be found there, at a site known as Kostenki 11. This has now been fully archaeologically investigated. It is much larger and c.3,000 years older than all other known examples, being a huge, circular structure 12.5m (41ft) across, with a continuous wall built with the bones of at least 60 woolly mammoths. There is no evidence of prolonged human activity within the ring of bones, which surprised and puzzled the investigating archaeologists, and so clearly wasn’t used as some form of regular habitation or refuge. “I cannot possibly imagine how they would have roofed over this structure,” opines Alexander JE Pryor, a lead archaeologist in the fieldwork. So, it wasn’t some sort of giant hut circle. The exceptional nature of the structure “implies that it was meant to last, perhaps as a landmark, a meeting place, a place of ceremonial importance,” suggests an expert at the University of Cambridge. But the actual nature of the great mammoth-bone site currently remains a mystery. Smithsonian Magazine,16 Mar 2020 .( Original paper in Antiquity: https://doi.org/10.15184/ aqy.2020.7)
ABOVE: An aerial view of the large mammoth-bone circle found in Kostenki in 2014. BELOW: A 6,000-year-old stare from a stone-age girl who threw her chewing gum away, seen here in an artist’s reconstruction.
of Copenhagen, lead researcher on the study. “These people didn’t live at the site, but probably on dry land a couple of hundred metres away.” Guardian,17 Dec 2019.