The Largest Mammoth Structure Ever Found in Russia, Shows

"Explaining the existence of these structures, besides being a residence for humans, there is another possibility of serving a certain religious goal of the ancients," Alexander Pryor, a member of the research team at Exeter University said.

"However, what the goal of belief is, our archaeologists have not enough evidence to conclude."

This is not the first time ancient archaeologists have found mammoth skeletons in the Kotenski area 11. Around the 1950s and 1960s, Soviet scientists unearthed two Other architecture, also built entirely of mammoth bones.

The fact that people in the Pleistocene period had devoted themselves to building such structures surprised many archaeologists. The reason is that ancient hunters were often present, and the construction of fixed structures that researchers thought was not in the minds of humans at that time.

"Identifying the origins of these skeletons is hard work, because they come from at least 60 different mammoths. Besides, explaining how these structures were created is also very difficult." causing a lot of headaches, because the mammoth's fresh bones are heavy - so bringing them from place to place is a lot of work. "

Further analysis of the fossils excavated in the area helped scientists find traces of coal, burnt bone fragments, along with some debris of stone tools. All of these specimens led scientists to hypothesize that this architecture was built by the Pleistocene people to take refuge in the cold weather of the ice age. Besides, this place can also be a place where people store food.

"If these mammoth skeletons were the result of a hunt, it would mean they would have a large amount of meat and need a place to store them. Therefore, there is a high possibility These architectures were built as a food storage for people at that time. " Pryor said. The next phase of the archeology at Kotenski 11 will also focus on analyzing the role of this architecture for the Pleistocene people.

However, the nature of these skeletal structures is in some ways unsuitable for long-term human shelter. On the one hand, the mammoth skeletons when they are new will smell very, and can absolutely attract other dangerous predators like foxes or wolves. On the other hand, the amount of debris of the stone tools here is much smaller than in other areas, which shows that the activities at this site are also much less.

But no matter what the purpose of this architecture is, it shows that the hunters of the Pleistocene period were probably wiser than we thought. Instead of just following the trail of animals for hunting and gathering, people in this period knew how to build buildings for their own purposes - even if it were to stay., to make a storehouse, to serve a religion, or for whatever purpose. And hopefully, further research will give us an answer on the purpose of building this architecture of the Pleistocene.

According to Gizmodo