Woolly mammoths – elephant-sized relatives of modern elephants wrapped in thick fur – once roamed the frozen grasslands of Ice Age Eurasia.
In November 2024, archaeologists monitoring a Czech construction site noticed something emerging from the ground: mammoth bones.
As earth was cleared, the discovery became an Ice Age scene. Thousands of animal remains lay with broken stone points, traces of fire, and red ochre.
At least 20 mammoths had ended up in one place.
The deposit may preserve evidence of repeated mammoth hunts around 27,000 years ago.
The bones emerged during construction of a Justice Palace in Bukov, a district of Ústí nad Labem in northern Bohemia.
Across approximately 1,000 square meters, archaeologists recorded more than 3,500 animal remains. Nineteen lower jaws and one isolated tooth revealed at least 20 woolly mammoths.
Woolly rhinoceroses, a horse, a reindeer, and a hare were also represented.
Among the remains, almost every part of the mammoth skeleton was present, although tusks and skull remains were scarce.
The researchers note that hunting large animals generally requires group cooperation, although Bukov does not reveal how hunts were organized.
Three clear combustion features lay beneath the bone layer; a possible fourth, a concentration of burned bones, lay north of the densest accumulation.
Archaeologists recovered stones that were likely carried to the site and a mammoth-ivory pendant. Patches of red ochre occurred directly beneath large bones.
Red ochre is an iron-rich pigment used by prehistoric humans. The study does not interpret its function.
The team recovered Late Gravettian tools, including backed bladelets, cutting implements, a Kostenki-style knife, and possible projectile fragments.
A preliminary use-wear analysis examined eight tools selected because they showed visible wear. At least one was associated with butchery; others carried traces compatible with hide-working and cutting soft materials. Individual mammoth ribs bore cut marks.
Two stone artifacts displayed fracture patterns scored as consistent with impact, supporting their possible use as projectile elements.
Together, the evidence suggests people processed fresh mammoth carcasses there, rather than merely collecting old bones.
Herčíková said the cut and butchery marks on post-cranial remains suggest that "mammoth meat was exploited for dietary purposes", rather than bones merely being gathered from the landscape.
Four initial radiocarbon dates from charcoal in two combustion features ranged from approximately 28,800 to 25,600 years ago. Differences between samples complicate the chronology, but the dates and stone-tool styles place the site in the Late Gravettian.
Gravettian mammoth-bone deposits are known from Moravia, Lower Austria, and southern Poland. Nothing comparable has been documented in Bohemia, and deposits from this later period are rare elsewhere.
"The finds from Bukov, Ústí nad Labem in north Bohemia signify both a geographic and temporal outlier," Herčíková said.
Most mammoths were sexually mature but still growing. Thirteen of the 20 animals were estimated to be roughly 13 to 27 years old, based on African elephant development.
"The mortality profile is dominated by (sub-)adult individuals, which are unlikely to die of natural causes," Herčíková explained.
Some may have been solitary young males that recently left their family herds, although researchers present this as only one possibility.
The paper notes the presence of individuals younger than five years. However, the overall age structure does not neatly match a single matriarchal herd, and only a few individuals could potentially be paired as mothers and calves.
The bones may therefore represent several hunts rather than one catastrophic event. Some body parts remained articulated, while the random orientation of the bones suggests the remains underwent little movement after deposition.
The possibility that people scavenged naturally dead mammoths cannot be excluded, and researchers do not know how quickly the deposit formed.
Analyses of mammoth DNA and sex could reveal whether the animals were related, whether males or females dominated, and whether hunters selected particular groups. Recent genetic research found that mammoths at other human-associated deposits were predominantly female, at about 70 percent.
Herčíková said the team wants to investigate the assemblage's sex distribution and possible hereditary relationships.
Body-part patterns could show how the carcasses were exploited. Dental microwear, isotopes, sedimentary DNA, and further dating may reveal the mammoths' diet and environment, and whether the deposit formed during a short occupation or several visits.
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The bones may reveal whether people repeatedly hunted mammoths at Bukov, how they processed the carcasses, and, if so, why they returned to the same place.
The study was published in the Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports.
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