An archeological sensation: Mammoth bones unearthed in Austrian vineyard

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

An Austrian, Andreas Pernerstorfer, discovered 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 began in the private vineyard last week and 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 even 40,000 years old.

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

"Such a dense bone layer of mammoths 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 those findings have been lost. Therefore, Krems's discovery marks "the first time we've been able to investigate something like this in Austria using modern methods." The Federal Monuments Office and the state of Lower Austria fund the excavations.

The discovery raises many questions for archaeologists, such as how Stone Age people could hunt these enormous animals. "We know that humans 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 hypothesizes 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.