(NewsNation) — Archaeologists in Austria are working to unearth the bones of three different mammoths estimated to be 30,000 to 40,000 years old.
The discovery could answer a long-standing question regarding Stone Age man.
“We know that humans hunted mammoths, but we still know very little about how they did it,” said Hannah Parow-Souchon, the leader of the excavation.
A man renovating his wine cellar found the huge bones and notified Austrian authorities, who alerted the country’s archeological institute. It’s believed to be the most significant discovery of prehistoric bones in Austria in more than 100 years.
“Such a dense bone layer of mammoths is rare,” said Parow-Souchon in a news release from the Austrian Academy of Sciences. “It’s the first time we’ve been able to investigate something like this in Austria using modern methods.”