A Mysterious Ice Age Structure Made From the Bones of 60 Woolly Mammoths : A 25,000-year-old Ice Age structure made from the bones of 60 woolly mammoths that was unearthed in Russia.
A team of scientists have been working to excavate the 40-foot-wide circular arrangement of bones at a paleolithic site located some 300 miles south of Moscow since 2014. The structure contains several walls, fire pits, and areas for butchering, according to the findings shared in the journal Antiquity.
As many as 70 similarly shaped mammoth structures have been discovered throughout Europe, including two uncovered at the site, Kostenki, in the 1950s and ‘60s. The oldest of these sites date back 22,000 years—3,000 years earlier than the one recently found in Kostenki.
They’re also significantly smaller, with most measuring less than 10 feet wide. Researchers believe they were used as modest protective dwellings during the frigid conditions of the ice age.
