Researchers have unearthed a mammoth “graveyard” filled with the bony remains of five individuals, including an infant, two juveniles, and two adults that died during the last ice age at what is now a quarry in Swindon, a town in southwest England.
The mammoth remains, such as tusks, leg bones, ribs, and vertebrae belonging to a species of Steppe mammoth, a group whose descendants include the woolly mammoth. Although early Steppe mammoths stood up to 13.1 feet (4 meters) high at the shoulders, the five individuals were smaller, according to Live Science.
The site has been described as “a goldmine,” ranging from the 200,000-year-old mammoths to giant elks, twice the size of their descendants today, with antlers 10ft across. Even insects, like dung beetles, as well as seeds, pollen and plant fossils, including extinct varieties, have been preserved at this site.
Also discovered among the remains were tools used by Neanderthals, including a hand ax and small flint tools known as scrapers.
According to DigVentures, the crowdsourced archaeological organization in the U.K. that led the excavation, more are expected to be found because only a fraction of the vast site, a gravel quarry, has been excavated.
“Finding mammoth bones is always extraordinary, but finding ones that are so old and well preserved, and in such close proximity to Neanderthal stone tools is exceptional,” Lisa Westcott Wilkins, the co-founder of DigVentures, said in a statement.
DigVentures began the excavations after being alerted to the site by Sally and Neville Hollingworth, from Swindon, reports The BBC. Mrs. Hollingworth said: “We were originally hoping to find marine fossils, and finding something so significant instead has been a real thrill.”
“Even better than that is seeing it turn into a major archaeological excavation. We couldn’t be more pleased that something we’ve discovered will be learned from and enjoyed by so many people.”
The site has been dated to between 220,000 and 210,000 years ago, toward the end of an interglacial, or warm period, when Neanderthals still lived in Britain. Once temperatures dropped, however, the Neanderthals moved farther south.
Research is ongoing to understand why so many mammoths were found in one place, and whether they were hunted or scavenged by Neanderthals. Duncan Wilson, Chief Executive of Historic England, said: “This represents one of Britain’s most significant Ice Age discoveries in recent years.”
“The findings have enormous value for understanding the human occupation of Britain, and the delicate environmental evidence recovered will also help us understand it in the context of past climate change.”
Attenborough and the Mammoth Graveyard
Perhaps even more exciting is that these exceptional discoveries will be explored in a BBC One documentary, Attenborough and the Mammoth Graveyard, to be aired on December 30.
Sir David Attenborough and evolutionary biologist Professor Ben Garrod joined archaeologists from DigVentures to film the excavation.
Garrod says, “This is one of the most important discoveries in British paleontology.” While the odd mammoth bone often turns up, he said, finding such complete skeletons is “incredibly rare”. “Where these mammoths lie in the ground is exactly where they died a quarter of a million years ago – next to incredible things like stone tools and the snails they trampled underfoot.”
“We have evidence of what the landscape was like. We know what plants were growing there. The little things are really revealing the context of these big, iconic giants. It’s a glimpse back in time. That’s incredibly important in terms of our understanding how climate change especially impacts environments, ecosystems, and species.”
