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Renovation work on the cellar floor was actually planned. A winemaker in Austria noticed something strange and informed the authorities.
Langenlois – It is a sensation: Archaeologists are talking about a discovery of the century in Austria: 40,000-year-old mammoth bones were found in a wine cellar in Gobelsburg-Zeiselberg. The winemaker Andreas Pernerstorfer actually wanted to level a cellar floor. But then he turned to the Federal Monuments Office. The Austrian Archaeological Institute (ÖAI) was called in.
Spectacular! Winemaker discovers old bone in old wine cellar in Austria
In the old wine cellar, the winemaker came across something that initially looked like a large piece of wood. But then Pernerstorfer noticed that he had a “very old bone in front of him,” writes the ÖAI on Facebook. Experts determined that these were bones from a mammoth. The archaeologists then took over. A team went to the site in the Langenlois area (Krems district).
Three mammoths found in wine cellar in Austria
“The Pernerstorf cellar probably contains the remains of two large and one small mammoth,” writes the ÖAI. The remains are between 30,000 and 40,000 years old, estimates excavation director Dr. Hannah Parow-Souchon. More precise figures will only be available once the analyses in the laboratories have been completed.
But pieces of charcoal were also found in the layers. These indicate that “Stone Age people were present there – in whatever role.” However, no tusks have been found so far.
![Accidental discovery in the old wine cellar: mammoth bones of three animals discovered 17 meters below the surface in Lower Austria.](https://www.merkur.de/assets/images/34/634/34634036-zufallsfund-im-alten-weinkeller-mammutknochen-von-drei-tieren-in-17-metern-tiefe-unter-der-oberflaeche-in-niederoesterreich-entdeckt-1S7Co1oyE4BG.jpg)
Archaeologists cast mammoth bones in a wine cellar
The bone remains of the three mammoths lay at a depth of 17 meters below the surface. According to the experts, recovering the centuries-old bones is difficult.
“We have to wrap them in wet newspaper and then plaster them so that they remain intact,” said excavation director Parow-Souchon, according to the Facebook post.
![Archaeologists recover 40,000-year-old mammoth bones in Austria.](https://www.merkur.de/assets/images/34/634/34634100-archaeologen-bergen-40-000-jahre-alte-mammutknochen-in-oesterreich-2fGHBYKx8UBG.jpg)
After “Venus of Willendorf” unique find in Austria
“This spectacular find is unique in Austria in the last 100 years,” says the municipality of Langenlois on its website and refers to the “Venus of Willendorf”. The approximately eleven centimeter tall Venus figurine was discovered in 1908 and is one of Austria’s most famous archaeological finds.
Only recently, a farmer discovered a secret underground passage from the Middle Ages beneath his farm. Meanwhile, researchers want to revive mammoths. (ml)
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