New Dates Obtained for Mammoth-Bone Structure in Ukraine

CHERKASY OBLAST, UKRAINE—SciNews reports that a new study of the bones of small animals recovered from Mezhyrich, the Upper Paleolithic site of four mammoth-bone structures in central Ukraine, indicates that at least one of the buildings had been used for more than 400 years. The four structures, made with hundreds of mammoth bones and tusks, range in size from about 130 to 260 square feet. It was not clear if the structures had been used as dwellings, or if they were created as bone beds, food caches, burials, or for religious purposes. Wei Chu of Leiden University and his colleagues dated the small animal bones at the fourth structure and found that they ranged in age from 18,248 to 17,764 years ago. This long-term use supports the idea that the structures had been used as protective dwellings against the harsh climate of the last Ice Age, researchers concluded. Read the original scholarly article about this research in Open Research Europe. To read about a similar structure excavated in western Russia, go to "Ice Age Ice Box."