Bones of Woolly Mammoths Found in Austrian Wine Cellar

While renovating his cellar, an Austrian winemaker uncovered a cache of woolly mammoth bones that could deepen our understanding of the connection between humans and these ancient creatures.

Andreas Pernerstorfer's winery is located in Kamptal, a renowned winemaking and cultural area in northeastern Austria. After discovering the massive bones beneath the dirt floor, he alerted the Austrian Federal Monuments Office. The Austrian Archaeological Institute has been excavating the site since March 2024, reaching depths of 55 feet. This marks the first major paleontological discovery in Austria in a century.

The bones are estimated to be between 30,000 and 40,000 years old and belong to at least three woolly mammoths. According to paleontologist Hannah Parow-Souchon, who is leading the excavation, this find is particularly important because mammoth bones are rarely discovered in clusters. This could suggest that humans gathered them, possibly indicating they were hunted and slaughtered by humans, with the site potentially being the remains of a Holocene Epoch feast.

Most archaeologists agree that early humans hunted woolly mammoths and other megafauna in groups, using spears and various tools. These massive animals would have provided substantial resources in the form of meat, hides, and bones for tool-making. Such hunting activities could have contributed to the extinction of these animals.

There is some debate over whether hunting these colossal creatures was a common practice for Stone Age humans. Science remains unclear on how a group of primitive people could successfully take down an animal that stood 10 feet tall, weighed up to six tons, and had formidable tusks. Understanding this process would shed light on the coordination and planning abilities of Paleolithic societies.

Parow-Souchon stated in a release from the Austrian Academy of Sciences that it's possible humans set a trap for the mammoths at this site. She also highlighted that this discovery represents the most significant find of woolly mammoth remains in over a century, as most similar sites in Europe have already been excavated and their archaeological value lost over time.

This isn't the first time significant findings have been made in Kamptal. About 150 years ago, artifacts from early human life—including flint tools, jewelry fossils, and charcoal—were uncovered in a neighboring wine cellar.