excavation, kraków spadzista, dolni vestonice mammoth bone accumulations

FIELDWORK

New excavations will be carried out at three of the most important sites with mammoth bone accumulations, ranging from the Early Gravettian, resp. Pavlovian (Dolní Věstonice I), to the Late Gravettian (Kraków Spadzista), and finally to the Epigravettian (Langmannersdorf). The three sites are linked by the presence of a large number of mammoth remains but vary regarding the other factors of interest to us: location, chronology and climatic/palaeoenvironmental conditions, techno-cultural context and settlement intensity, as well as the quality of the archaeological record. One goal of fieldwork is to assess and recover sediment sequences to understand the sedimentary, chronostratigraphic, and palaeoenvironmental context of the human occupation, as well as the spatial and/or behavioral relationship between archaeological materials and bone accumulations.

TEAM: Jarosław Wilczyński, Martin Novák, Marc Händel.

DOLNI VESTONICE (CZECHIA)

The Dolní Věstonice I site is one of the most significant Pavlovian “mammoth hunters” localities known from southern Moravia. At Dolni Vestonice I, archaeological and palaeontological material was collected at the beginning of the 20th century. The first regular excavation was led by Freising in 1922. The fieldwork was continued by K. Absolon in the years 1924-38 and during the Second World War by A. Bohmers. After the war, some test trenches were dug by K. Žebera, and regular excavations were led by B. Klíma (with some interruptions from 1948 until 1979). The latest fieldwork concentrated on the stratigraphical situation, with a few deep trenches excavated in the 1990s. During fieldwork, different areas of the site were investigated and numerous lithic and osseous artefacts, human remains and art objects such as the famous ‘Dark Venus’ were discovered. The artefacts were accompanied by a vast assemblage of animal bones, which were collected from the whole surface of the locality.
The first months of the MAMBA in 2022 will be concentrated on large-scale fieldwork at Dolní Věstonice I (Pavlovian, 33-29 ka BP). The excavation aims at re-opening a previously uncovered area of the mammoth bone deposit, documenting and collecting all materials and sampling the site. Our fieldwork was motivated by a lack of data and material from the old excavations (i.e., the mammoth remains exposed during B. Klíma’s fieldwork in the 1960’s were left in place and therefore not studied).

Dolní Věstonice I, mammoth bones accumulation

KRAKÓW SPADZISTA (POLAND)

Krakow Spadzista is located on the high northern headland of Sikornik hill (also known as St. Bronisłava Hill), in the eastern part of the Sowiniec horst, on its northern slopes descending to the Rudawa River valley. The archaeological site occurs on the surface of a triangle-shaped plateau, located in the northern part of the Sikornik hill. While the south-western part of the site gently transitions through a neck several dozen meters wide into the top part of the Sikornik hill, the northern part is delimited by a steep rocky cliff. The absolute height of the plateau ranges from 250 to 254 m amsl and rises about 50 m above the bottom of the Rudawa river, a left tributary of the Vistula river. The site was accidentally discovered in the late autumn of 1967, and systematic research organized by J.K. Kozłowski and H. Kubiak began in 1968. During many years of fieldwork a number of trenches were excavated, which sampled almost the whole surface of the plateau. Currently the site is divided onto three Zones: I is a base camp (trenches C, C2, and D); II is a workshop (trenches E, E1, and F); and III is the mammoth bone accumulation area (trench B+B1 and B3!). The site’s main cultural layer in Zone III (Late Gravettian, layer 6) was discovered in blue-grey silts, strongly affected by cryogenic processes. At trench B+B1 this layer contains the mammoth bone accumulation, with a thickness measuring 30 to 100 cm.
During the 2016 excavation a new area was discovered. The remains of three mammoth individuals were found in an excavated area of 3 m2. We assumed that the mammoth bone accumulation primarily localized in trench B by J. Kozłowski is much larger or a distinct new accumulation has been found. To resolve these questions and collect a new dataset, a new fieldwork campaign on this site was planned.

Kraków Spadzista - general view and the plan of the site.

LANGMANNERSDORF (AUSTRIA)

The site of Langmannersdorf is located in Lower Austria west of Vienna, on a loess-covered south-exposed slope above the north bank of the river Perschling, a tributary to the Danube. Today, due to intense agriculture, the loess cover is highly disturbed by ploughing and eroded, and the preservation of the finds’ distribution that originally measured ca. 300 m across is only very fragmentary. We assume that, in a best case scenario, not more than the deepest parts of one or more pits may still be intact.

In the first years of the 20th century, bones of mammoths exposed after rains in a hollow way crossing a field were first reported. Soon afterwards, bones of mammoths and other mammals were also found on the field itself. This drew the attention of A. Stummer who undertook first small-scale field investigations in 1904-05. This documented the presence of lithic artefacts together with the faunal remains. In 1906-07 first excavations of the Natural History Museum Vienna were conducted by H. Obermaier and A. Stummer next to the hollow way.
Systematic excavations of the Natural History Museum Vienna were carried out by J. Bayer in 1919-20. These determined the site extent and established a picture of independent camps (“Lagerplatz A”, “Lagerplatz B”) with several distinct activity zones. Bayer claims to have completely excavated “Lagerplatz B”.
The reassessment of the Palaeolithic record in east Austria conducted by a team of the Prehistoric Commission of the Austrian Academy of Sciences led by C. Neugebauer-Maresch from 2000-03, included systematic coring at Langmannersdorf, as well as analyses and publication of the archaeological and archaeofaunal material. In 2000, twelve core drillings were carried out by R. Peticzka of the University of Vienna, but only one core documented the punctual presence of very faint traces of a potential find layer. It was therefore concluded that the site must have been completely eroded.
In 2020s a private collector regularly found small quantities of mammoth tooth and bone fragments as well as lithic artefacts after the field was ploughed, in a limited area of the site. The finding was reported to the Federal Monuments Office (Bundesdenkmalamt) in 2023.

Excavations at the LGM site Langmannersdorf 1920. (© NHM Vienna – PAFI04950, Photoplate Archive, Prehistory Department/L. Adametz.)