1984 Mammoth-Bone Dwellings On The Russian Plain

Mammoth-Bone Dwellings
on the Russian Plain

They were built 15,000 years ago by hunting-and-gathering bands.
Their complexity and permanence suggest that a profound social
change was {aking place on the steppe at the end of the great Ice Age
by Mikhail 1. Gladkih, Ninel; L. Kornietz and Olga Soffer
n 1871 G. S. Kiryakov, who was a my of Sciences worked at the site from which the cultural remains are buried
I member of the local gentry in the

village of Gontsy in what is now the
the time of its discovery until his death
in 1975; since then we have worked
are of two types: loess and colluvium.
Loess is a fine dust that was deposited by
Ukrainian Republic of the U.S.S.R., or there. We conclude that the site was the the wind during the cold, dry periods of
dered an excavation to be carried out on winter camp for a prosperous Paleolith the glacial epoch. Colluvium i"s any ma
a piece of property he owned near the ic hunting-and-gathering band. The terial that has slid down the side of
village. When the workmen began to hunters came to Mezhirich in about a promontory near a river toward the
dig, they uncovered some unusual large 15,000 B.P. (before the present) and built bank of the river itself. Colluvium tends
bones. The bones proved to be from the at least five mammoth-bone dwellings. to be coarser than loess.
mammoth, an animal that has been ex Evidence found at the site suggests the Loess is a good material for preserv
tinct in the Ukraine for 10,000 years, community had mechanisms for chan ing the remnants of a human settlement
and Kiryakov gave them to the local neling into specific projects the labor because it is deposited quickly, it is not
high school as a curiosity. time that was not needed for subsist acidic and it is impermeable to many
The history teacher at the high school ence. It is possible the community also substances that can destroy organic re
was excited by the bones and, enlisting had mechanisms for resolving disputes. mains. The settlements along the Dnepr
the aid of a geologist from Kiev, he be The development of such mechanisms are often buried in 10 or more meters of
gan to dig. At the spot where the bones was undoubtedly a crucial phase of loess and therefore have been well pre
had been unearthed the two amateur human prehistory and hence the work served. The loess was laid down during
archaeologists found the remains of a at Mezhirich is yielding insights into a the coldest part of the great Ice Age:
Paleolithic community. Because of the formative period of human society. the period known as the Valdai in the
crudeness of the available excavating U.S.S.R. The Valdai glaciation lasted
techniques, it appeared the bones were ezhirich, along with several other from about 100,000 to about 10,000
simply refuse: a Paleolithic garbage M mammoth-bone communities and During the Valdai maximum, in about
B.P.
heap left by hunters who had stripped many Pleistocene sites without mam 2 0,000 B.P., the Scandinavian ice sheet
the meat from mammoth carcasses and moth bones, is in the Ukrainian Repub covered all northern Russia and extend
left the bones on the ground. lic. A few mammoth-bone sites are in ed to near the 55th parallel.
It was not until the 192 0's that bet the Byelorussian Republic or the Rus Human communities living on the
ter methods for opening up mammoth sian Republic. All three republics lie Russian plain during the Valdai could
bone sites were developed. Among the on the central Russian plain, which have experienced considerable climatic
innovations was that of excavating the stretches from the Carpathian foothills fluctuation. There is some evidence that
entire occupied area of a community, in the west to the Ural Mountains in the during the late Valdai (after 18,000 B.P. )
rather than working in narrow trenches east and occupies the southern half of the climate warmed and cooled in cycles
as earlier workers had done. When the the European U.S.S.R. This vast area is of about 1,000 years' duration. Cold,
new techniques were applied at Gontsy drained by three major river systems, dry stadial periods alternated with
and other sites, it became clear that the the Dnestr, the Don and the Dnepr, warmer, wetter interstadial periods. In
mammoth bones were not merely re flowing south to the Black Sea and the the stadial periods. the mean January
fuse. On the contrary, the bone was the Sea of Asov. temperatures may have been as low as
structural material for an extraordinary Most of the Paleolithic sites in this 35 to 40 degrees below zero Celsius
style of building. The mammoth-bone region are near a river, and the sites clus (- 31 to -40 degrees Fahrenheit). The
structures were generally round or oval tered around each major river tend to average July temperature might have
in plan. Skulls, mandibles, scapulas and have a certain cultural unity. The set been about 18 degrees above 0 C. (64
other bones formed the foundations. tlements that include mammoth-bone degrees F.).
The superstructure was probably a dwellings are mainly found along the Except for a shallow summer thaw
wood frame covered with hides or sod. Dnepr and its tributaries. layer the ground was permanently fro
About a dozen sites in the Ukraine are The Dnepr sites show both cultural zen; the frozen layer began at a depth of
now known to include mammoth-bone similarities and similarities in their orig about 1.5 meters below the surface and
dwellings. In the late 1960's one of the inal geographic situation. All of them extended downward. The permafrost
most intriguing mammoth-bone sites are buried in geologic deposits on a river and the thaw layer were of great signifi
was found near the town of Mezhirich. terrace or on the edge of a plateau ad cance to the inhabitants in storing food.
Ivan Pidoplichko of the U.S.S.R. Acade- jacent to a river valley. The deposits in Periglacial steppe vegetation consist-
164
© 1984 SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN, INC
This content downloaded from

109.245.175.226 on Wed, 18 Nov 2020 15:31:30 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
MAMMOTH-BONE DWELLING from a site near the village of outer and upper part of the wall consisted of 95 mandibles arranged
Mezhirich in the Ukrainian Republic of the U.S.S.R. was recon "chin down." The roof may have been made of hides supported by a
structed under the supervision of Academician Ivan Pidoplichko. The wood frame and held in place by an assortment of bones. The upright
upper panel shows the entrance to the dwelling and the lower panel bones in front of the entrance come from the legs of the mammoth.
shows the back. The structure was about five meters across at the A skull decorated with designs in red ocher can be seen just behind
base. A Paleolithic hunting-and-gathering band built the dwelling. them. The dwelling was the first of four mammoth-bone structures
They placed skulls in a semicircle to form the interior base wall. The to be unearthed at Mezhirich; it has been designated Dwelling No. 1.
165
© 1984 SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN, INC
This content downloaded from

109.245.175.226 on Wed, 18 Nov 2020 15:31:30 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms

1984 Mammoth-Bone Dwellings On The Russian Plain

Uploaded by

Document Informationclick to expand document information

Copyright:

Available Formats

1984 Mammoth-Bone Dwellings On The Russian Plain

Uploaded by

Document Information

Original Title

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

1984 Mammoth-Bone Dwellings On The Russian Plain

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

Mammoth-Bone Dwellings

on the Russian Plain

by Mikhail 1. Gladkih, Ninel; L. Kornietz and Olga Soffer

I member of the local gentry in the

© 1984 SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN, INC

This content downloaded from

This content downloaded from

You might also like