Mysterious ‘Palace of Bones’ Made of Ancient Woolly Mammoth Remains from 40,000 Years Ago Unearthed in Russia

Archaeologists have uncovered a “Palace of bones” made from the ancient remains of over 60 woolly mammoths in an archaeological site in Russia .

Knewz.com has learned that the find has been labeled a “hunter-gatherer” relic, and is believed to be the oldest “mammoth house” ever discovered in the Russian site.

Located at the archaeological site Kostenki 11, around 300 miles south of Moscow , experts believe that the mysterious and ancient “relic” is over 40,000 years old.

Sprawling across an area of 30 feet by 30 feet, the hunter-gatherer relic is also considered the largest prehistoric monument of its kind ever discovered at this archaeological site.

It has been reported that similar relics have previously been uncovered at the site in the 1960s and 70s, but they were significantly smaller in size.

The walls of the recently identified structure were built from 51 mammoth jawbones and 64 woolly mammoth skulls.

Charred wood remains have also been found at the site, which indicates the ancient humans who lived in the “Palace of Bones” lit wood fires there.

Dr Alexander Pryor from the University of Exeter, lead archaeologist on the project, commented on the remarkable find, saying:

“Kostenki 11 represents a rare example of Palaeolithic hunter-gatherers living on in this harsh environment.”

The question of why the hunter-gatherers chose this particular site to build this relic has left experts scratching their heads, Dr Pryor sharing some plausible theories.

“What might have brought ancient hunter-gatherers to this site? One possibility is that the mammoths and humans could have come to the area on masse because it had a natural spring that would have provided unfrozen liquid water throughout the winter – rare in this period of extreme cold,” he was quoted as saying.

He further explained that, per his belief, the site possibly had a cultural significance as well:

“It clearly meant something to them, and there was very likely a ritual element to it, even if the structure ultimately had some sort of practical purpose too.”

“It’s not yet clear whether the bones are from mammoths recently hunted and killed by humans or if they were scavenged from carcasses of animals that died of natural causes,” Dr Pryor added.

Woolly mammoths are perhaps the most iconic megafauna specimen from the Ice Age , with the signature colossal tusks and massive size. These Ice Age giants were around 10 to 12 feet tall and weighed somewhere between six and eight tons.

These titans walked the Earth during the Pleistocene ice ages and gradually went extinct after losing much of their habitat to the rapid climate change that hit the planet.

The findings from the recent discovery have been documented in a paper published in the Antiquity journal.

It has been reported that the discovery of the “mammoth house” came days after the discovery of the skeletal remains of at least 14 Woolly Mammoths in Mexico City.

Overall, around 800 bones were discovered in two ancient man-made hunter traps in Tultepec, north of the Mexican capital. Experts believe that the hunters who built the traps used torches and branches to herd the humongous animals into the pits and kill them.

Notably, the hunter traps in Mexico were the first ones to ever be discovered that were used to hunt mammoths. Previously, it was believed that ancient humans only attacked mammoths when they were trapped or hurt.

However, the discovery suggests that they were deliberately hunted and killed by humans.

“This represents a watershed, a turning point in what we until now imagined to be the interaction between hunter-gatherers with these huge herbivores,” Diego Prieto Hernández, director of the National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH) commented .