Austrian vineyard unearths rare 40,000-year-old mammoth bones

The discovery made in one of the vineyards in Krems, Austria, has been aptly named an "archaeological sensation." There, mammoth bones were found, which could be as much as 40,000 years old.

Krems is a city located in northeastern Austria, in the state of Lower Austria, about 80 kilometres from Vienna. The city, where the exceptional discovery was made, is listed as a UNESCO World Cultural and Natural Heritage site.

An Austrian, Andreas Pernerstorfer, came across the fossils while preparing to renovate his vineyard. During the work in the wine cellar, he stumbled upon large bones. He immediately informed the Federal Monuments Office, which then called in the Austrian Archaeological Institute. Upon arrival at the site, specialists began conducting excavations.

The work, which began in the private vineyard last week, is still ongoing. During this time, several layers of mammoth bones were discovered. The age of the findings is tentatively estimated to be between 30,000 and 40,000 years old.

Interestingly, the workers from the Austrian Archaeological Institute reported that the bones most likely belonged to three different animals.

"Such a dense layer of mammoth bones is rare," said Hannah Parow-Souchon, who leads the excavation. A comparable discovery was last made in Austria over 100 years ago. However, most of them have been lost. The discovery in Krems, therefore, represents a "unique research opportunity." The excavations are funded by the Federal Monuments Office and the state of Lower Austria.

The discovery raises many questions for archaeologists, such as how Stone Age people were able to hunt these enormous animals. "We know that people hunted mammoths, but we still know very little about how they did it," says Parow-Souchon, a researcher at the Austrian Academy of Sciences. The archaeologist explains that the place where they were found could be where the animals died. She hypothesises that people might have set a trap for them there.

After all the research is conducted, the found bones will be transferred to the Natural History Museum in Vienna.