Mysterious Bone Circles (Russia): Sites Of Prehistoric Ice Age Survival

[EnolaGaia]

These bone circle sites are found on the Russian plains. They consist of circular piles(?) of animal bones - especially mammoth bones. They were originally thought to be settlements, but this interpretation isn't certain.

They are significant for illustrating that humans were managing to survive in the harsh environment circa 20,000 years ago during the peak of an Ice Age.

NOTE: This isn't being placed in the Ancient Humans in Siberia & Arctic thread:

https://forums.forteana.org/index.php?threads/ancient-humans-in-siberia-arctic.12424/#post-1558505

... because these bone circles aren't located in either Siberia or the Arctic.

Eerie Circle Built From Mammoth Bones Reveals New Clues About Survival in The Ice Age

Long before the comfort of modern amenities, ancient human communities were capable of living in some truly harsh and frigid environments.

On the central Russian Plain, a mysterious ring of mammoth bones has been dated to the peak of the last European ice age, when winter temperatures regularly reached -20 degrees Celsius or lower.

The site where this ancient structure was found - on the west bank of the Don River, about 500 kilometres (300 miles) south of Moscow - is known as Kostenki 11. The area has a long history of excavation, dating back to the 1700s; early structures were found there during digs in the 1950s and 60s.

Thanks to radiocarbon dating, a new study has revealed the discovery of the oldest known bone circle built by modern humans on the Russian Plain; there are about 70 of these mysterious structures littered throughout the area.

At more than 20,000 years old, this one particular site would have just started going up as the last ice age reached its coldest and most severe yet.

"Archaeology is showing us more about how our ancestors survived in this desperately cold and hostile environment at the climax of the last ice age," says palaeolithic archaeologist Alexander Pryor from the University of Exeter.

"Most other places at similar latitudes in Europe had been abandoned by this time, but these groups had managed to adapt to find food, shelter and water."

Of course, even these few remaining communities didn't last forever. Eventually, the bone circles were abandoned. But for a while there at least, they were important sites for humans.

The oldest continuous bone circle, which stretches 12.5 metres in diameter (41 feet), appears to be made almost exclusively of mammoth bones, along with a smattering of bones from reindeer, horse, bear, wolf, red fox and arctic fox; the archaeologists have identified a total of 51 lower jaws and 64 individual skulls from mammoths....

"Yet despite this cold, the widespread distribution of charcoal and burnt bone at Kostenki 11 indicates the availability of wood fuel and the sustained use of mixed-fuel (wood and bone) fires," the authors write in their study.

In fact, this is only the second mammoth-bone circle at which habitual wood burning has been identified. And it's some 5,000 years older than the other one. ...

For now, the purpose of this bone circle remains a mystery. ...

FULL STORY: https://www.sciencealert.com/palaeo...oth-bones-during-the-peak-of-the-last-ice-age

 

[Kondoru]

Ok, heres a try...

In Stephen Bridges `Uttermost part of the Earth` he desccribes gucano and sheep in winter.

The herd or flock goes and shelters in a grove of bushes. They huddles together for warmth in the blizzard.

And eat the bushes, gnaw them down to the roots.

But they are then fenced in by drifts, which have iced due to the warmth from their bodies. They are too weak to escape and seek pasture.

They die, and when the snow melts their is a round ring of bodies.

A traveler might come upon this phenomena years later and start wild stories about an `Elephants graveyard` of ruminants.

But those in the descriptions are man made

 

[EnolaGaia]

The bone circles don't seem to represent places where groups of animals sheltered and / or died in place.

The circles described in post #1 contain bones from a diverse set of animals besides mammoths.

The longstanding interpretation of such bone circles is that they represent human shelters constructed of large (especially mammoth) bones, probably supported by a wooden framework and covered by hides. Under this interpretation these structures had been cited as the earliest known constructed human shelters - an early example of the pit houses various cultures have employed for milliennia.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pit-house

An extensive illustrated presentation on one set of such structures in Ukraine can be seen at:

https://www.donsmaps.com/mammothcamp.html

The article states researchers claim no evidence of very long-term occupation at the Kostenki 11 site. My first guess is that the Kostenki 11 site represents a shorter-term habitation scene - perhaps one used as a transient seasonal hunting / butchering camp.

 

[Tin]

The bone circles don't seem to represent places where groups of animals sheltered and / or died in place.

The circles described in post #1 contain bones from a diverse set of animals besides mammoths.

The longstanding interpretation of such bone circles is that they represent human shelters constructed of large (especially mammoth) bones, probably supported by a wooden framework and covered by hides. Under this interpretation these structures had been cited as the earliest known constructed human shelters - an early example of the pit houses various cultures have employed for milliennia.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pit-house

An extensive illustrated presentation on one set of such structures in Ukraine can be seen at:

https://www.donsmaps.com/mammothcamp.html

The article states researchers claim no evidence of very long-term occupation at the Kostenki 11 site. My first guess is that the Kostenki 11 site represents a shorter-term habitation scene - perhaps one used as a transient seasonal hunting / butchering camp.

That's a lot of hunting and butchering going on, they must've kept going back over time rather than one visit. Do you know if they've looked extensively for other sites say within one or two days travel of this one?

 

[EnolaGaia]

That's a lot of hunting and butchering going on, they must've kept going back over time rather than one visit. Do you know if they've looked extensively for other sites say within one or two days travel of this one?

If you check the 2nd link in my post #3 it describes how these sorts of sites are fairly widespread in the Ukraine / European Russia region, and these are only the sites that have been discovered to date.

 

[Tin]

If you check the 2nd link in my post #3 it describes how these sorts of sites are fairly widespread in the Ukraine / European Russia region, and these are only the sites that have been discovered to date.

Those dwellings look amazing.

 

[EnolaGaia]

Regarding how many such sites are known ... This Live Science article about the bone circles states:

There are about 70 other ice age "bone circles" at about 25 sites in Ukraine and Russia already known to archaeologists, but the newly discovered one is the oldest on record...

SOURCE: https://www.livescience.com/ice-age-mammoth-house.html