The osteological remains of at least five mammoths have been unearthed in Langmannersdorf, Lower Austria. Archaeologists found numerous bones, stone tools and dismembered tusks, evidence that humans hunted mammoths, ate the meat and processed the ivory 25,000 years ago.
Two excavation pits 50 feet apart from each other were found to contain dense layers of mammoth remains with stone tools between them. One area contained the bones of at least two mammoths with butchering marks indicating they were processed for their meat. The other area contained at least three mammoths and both complete and dismembered tusks. This suggests the two areas were dedicated to different work, one for butchering, the other for ivory processing. Mammoth ivory is very strong, hard to break or splinter, so Paleolithic hunters made wide use of the material for spearheads, needles, pestles, beads and other objects.
“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,” explains Marc Händel of the Austrian Archaeological Institute of the Austrian Academy of Sciences. The new discoveries provide valuable insights into the hunting and lifestyles of people of this period.
Shortly before the peak of the last Ice Age, herds of mammoths still roamed the landscapes of Central Europe. They used the Perschling Valley near Langmannersdorf as a migration and grazing area. This find suggests that people of this time had a thorough understanding of the animals’ habits and used this knowledge specifically for their hunting expeditions. The success of these hunts is still evident today in the numerous mammoth bones and stone tools that have been discovered.
Langmannersdorf is one of the most important Paleolithic sites in Austria. It is the youngest site in Central Europe to have a large quantity of mammoth bones. It was first excavated in 1904. The most recent excavation began last month.
Modern interdisciplinary methods are being used: In addition to analyzing stone tools and battle scars, ancient DNA and stable isotopes are being examined on the teeth and bones of the mammoths, as well as radiometric dating and paleodemographic modeling. Paleoenvironmental reconstructions are helping to better understand the living conditions at that time.
Considering the bigger picture, I am not really convinced, as it does not make sense to me at all, why those mammoths would have picked particularly the Perschling Valley south of the Danube, and it even may be fair to assume that people (and the lions!?) were following the animals.
Instead, it would have been the Danube valley itself that they were most likely roaming along. Just 20km North of the find site here, there were –i.e. on the other side of the Danube– likewise mammoths galore, and to the East they may have used the Pannonian grassland, presumably south of the ice shield.
To the West, i.e. upstream the Danube, there were ivory artifacts like the ones from the Hohlefels, and even further, where currently the North Sea separates Britain from the Mainland, there were likewise mammoths grazing, whose remains are regularly brought up from what is now the sea bed.
I would think that mammoths would have to be butchered and processed where they were killed/died since it is effectively impossible to move a dead mammoth. Even rolling one over would be pretty tough and require a lot of folk to do it.