A cold case from the last Glacial Maximum: A partial mammoth skeleton from southern Germany (Danube Valley, Germany) – Part 1: Traces of human activity and archaeological context

Remains of at least 72 skeletal elements and a tusk of one woolly mammoth were unearthed from an Upper Würmian palaeo-channel fill and adjacent overbank deposits in southeastern Germany. The skeletal remains are from a large but not yet fully grown individual. Cut marks on several ribs indicate human involvement. However, archaeological traces, such as artefacts or settlement remains, were not recovered. The individual was radiocarbon-dated to 26.9–25.3 ka cal BP, which corresponds to the late Gravettian. Other archaeological evidence from the Gravettian period in south-eastern Germany is rare. This find represents the most recent evidence of a late Gravettian occupation of eastern character in Bavaria before the settlement hiatus of the LGM.