Mammoth Bone Dwellings

Mammoth bone dwellings are a very early type of housing constructed by Upper Paleolithic hunter-gatherers in central Europe during the Late Pleistocene. A mammoth (Mammuthus primogenus, and also known as Woolly Mammoth) was a type of enormous ancient now-extinct elephant, a hairy large-tusked mammal that stood ten feet tall as an adult. Mammoths roamed most of the world, including the continents of Europe and North America, until they died out at the end of the Pleistocene. During the late Pleistocene, mammoths provided meat and skin for human hunter-gatherers, fuel for fires, and, in some cases during the Upper Paleolithic of central Europe, as building materials for houses.

A mammoth bone dwelling is typically a circular or oval structure with walls made of stacked large mammoth bones often modified to allow them to be lashed together or implanted into the soil. Within the interior is typically found a central hearth or several scattered hearths. The hut is generally surrounded by numerous large pits, full of mammoth and other animal bones. Ashy concentrations with flint artifacts appear to represent middens; many of the mammoth bone settlements have a preponderance of ivory and bone tools. External hearths, butchering areas, and flint workshops are often found in association with the hut: scholars call these combinations Mammoth Bone Settlements (MBS).

Dating mammoth bone dwellings has been problematic. The earliest dates were between 20,000 and 14,000 years ago, but most of these have been re-dated to between 14,000-15,000 years ago. However, the oldest known MBS is from the Molodova site, a Neanderthal Mousterian occupation located on the Dniester River of Ukraine, and dated some 30,000 years earlier than most of the known Mammoth Bone Settlements.

Archaeological Sites

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Mezhirich - Upper Paleolithic Mammoth Bone Settlement in Ukraine

By K. Kris Hirst

There is considerable debate about many of these sites, leading to more confusion about how many mammoth bone huts have been identified. All have massive amounts of mammoth bone, but the debate for some of them centers on whether the bone deposits include mammoth-bone structures. All of the sites date to the Upper Paleolithic period (Gravettian or Epi-Gravettian), with the sole exception of Molodova 1, which dates to the Middle Stone Age and is associated with Neanderthals.

Penn State archaeologist Pat Shipman has provided additional sites (and the map) to include in this list, which includes some very dubious attributions:

• Ukraine: Molodova 5, Molodova I, Mezhirich, Kiev-Kirillovskii, Dobranichevka, Mezin, Ginsy, Novgorod-seversky, Gontsy, Pushkari, Radomyshl'
• Czech Republic: Predmosti, Dolni Vestonice, Vedrovice 5, Milovice G
• Poland: Dzierzyslaw, Krakow-Spadzista Street B
• Romania: Ripiceni-Izvor
• Russia: Kostenki I, Avdeevo, Timonovka, Elisseevich, Suponevo, Yudinovo
• Belarus: Berdyzh

Settlement Patterns

In the Dnepr river region of Ukraine, numerous mammoth bone settlements have been found and recently re-dated to the epi-Gravettian between 14,000 and 15,000 years ago. These mammoth bone huts are typically located on old river terraces, above and within a ravine trending down to a slope overlooking the river. This type of location is believed to have been a strategic one, as it is placed in the path or near the pathway of what would have been migrating animal herds between the steppe plain and the riverside.

Some mammoth bone dwellings are isolated structures; others have up to six dwellings, although they may not have been occupied at the same time. Evidence for contemporaneity of dwelling has been identified by refits of tools: for example, at Mezhirich in Ukraine, it appears that at least three dwellings were occupied at the same time. Shipman (2014) has argued that sites such as Mezhirich and others with mega-deposits of mammoth bone (known as mammoth mega-sites) were made possible by the introduction of dogs as hunting partners, 

Mammoth Bone Hut Dates

Mammoth bone dwellings are not the only or first type of house: Upper Paleolithic open-air houses are found as pit-like depressions excavated into the subsoil or based with stone rings or postholes, like that seen at Pushkari or Kostenki. Some UP houses are partly built of bone and partly of stone and wood, such as Grotte du Reine, France.

Sources

• Demay L, Péan S, and Patou-Mathis M. 2012. Mammoths used as food and building resources by Neanderthals: Zooarchaeological study applied to layer 4,  Quaternary International 276-277:212-226. doi: 10.1016/j.quaint.2011.11.019Molodova I (Ukraine).
• Gaudzinski S, Turner E, Anzidei AP, Àlvarez-Fernández E, Arroyo-Cabrales J, Cinq-Mars J, Dobosi VT, Hannus A, Johnson E, Münzel SC et al. 2005. The use of Proboscidean remains in every-day Palaeolithic life. Quaternary International 126–128(0):179-194. doi: 10.1016/j.quaint.2004.04.022
• Germonpré M, Sablin M, Khlopachev GA, and Grigorieva GV. 2008. Possible evidence of mammoth hunting during the Epigravettian at Yudinovo, Russian Plain. Journal of Anthropological Archaeology 27(4):475-492. doi: 10.1016/j.jaa.2008.07.003
• Iakovleva L, and Djindjian F. 2005. New data on Mammoth bone settlements of Eastern Europe in the light of the new excavations of the Gontsy site (Ukraine). Quaternary International 126–128:195-207.
• Iakovleva L, Djindjian F, Maschenko EN, Konik S, and Moigne AM. 2012. The late Upper Palaeolithic site of Gontsy (Ukraine): A reference for the reconstruction of the  Quaternary International 255:86-93. doi: 10.1016/j.quaint.2011.10.004hunter–gatherer system based on a mammoth economy.
• Iakovleva LA, and Djindjian F. 2001. New data on mammoth bone dwellings of Eastern Europe in the light of the new excavations of the Ginsy site (Ukraine). Paper given at the World of Elephants - International Congress, Rome 2001
• Marquer L, Lebreton V, Otto T, Valladas H, Haesaerts P, Messager E, Nuzhnyi D, and Péan S. 2012. Charcoal scarcity in Epigravettian settlements with mammoth bone dwellings: the taphonomic evidence from Mezhyrich (Ukraine). Journal of Archaeological Science 39(1):109-120.
• Péan S. 2010. Mammoth and subsistence practices during the Mid Upper Palaeolithic of Central Europe (Moravia, Czech Republic). In: Cavarretta G, Gioia P, Mussi M, and Palombo MR, editors. The World of Elephants - Proceedings of the 1st International Congress. Rome: Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche. p 331-336.
• Shipman P. 2015. The Invaders: How Humans and Their Dogs Drove Neanderthals to Extinction. Harvard: Cambridge.
• Shipman P. 2014. How do you kill 86 mammoths? Taphonomic investigations of mammoth  Quaternary International (in press). 10.1016/j.quaint.2014.04.048megasites.
• Svoboda J, Péan S, and Wojtal P. 2005. Mammoth bone deposits and subsistence practices during Mid-Upper Palaeolithic in Central Europe: three cases from Moravia and Poland. Quaternary International 126–128:209-221.
• Wojtal P, and Sobczyk K. 2005. Man and woolly mammoth at the Kraków Spadzista Street (B) – taphonomy of the site. Journal of Archaeological Science 32(2):193-206. doi: 10.1016/j.jas.2004.08.005