During the renovation of his wine cellar in Austria, a man stumbled upon an extraordinary find that far surpassed the age of any vintage wine. What he uncovered were the remains of a mammoth, a collection of bones estimated to be around 40,000 years old.
According to the Austrian Archeological Institute, researchers have made one of the most significant mammoth fossil discoveries in Austria in over a century. They believe that the fossilized bones found in the prehistoric Stone Age belonged to at least three different mammoths.
According to a press release from the institute, winemaker Andreas Pernerstorfer stumbled upon the bones while renovating his cellar in the Austrian village of Gobelsburg, situated approximately 45 miles west of Vienna.
Pernerstorfer reported the bones to the Federal Monuments Office. The office then referred him to the Austrian Archaeological Institute of the Austrian Academy of Sciences.
Archaeologists have made an extraordinary discovery, which they refer to as an “archaeological sensation.” Since commencing the excavation process in mid-May, they have unearthed multiple layers of mammoth bones.
Hannah Parow-Souchon, the excavation leader, expressed her excitement over the discovery of such a dense bone layer of mammoths. In a press release, she stated, “It’s rare to come across something like this, and it’s a first for us to be able to investigate it in Austria using modern methods.”
The ongoing investigation into how Stone Age people were able to hunt the now-extinct, giant creatures, which belong to the elephantid genus, has been advanced by this discovery.
“We have limited knowledge about the methods humans employed to hunt mammoths,” stated Parow-Souchon in a press release.
The researchers are questioning whether the cellar served as the site where the mammoths perished and whether they were pursued and ensnared there, as stated in the release.
Researchers are currently examining the collection of fossils, which will then be sent to the Natural History Museum Vienna for restoration.
In 2021, a team of international researchers made an extraordinary discovery in northeast Siberia. They stumbled upon million-year-old molars from three mammoth specimens, making it the oldest skeletal fragments ever found.
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