Rabu, 20 Juni 2012

Mammoth grave yard... Remains of five giant prehistoric beasts discovered in Serbia

Mammoth grave yard... Remains of five giant prehistoric beasts discovered in Serbia

  • It will take more than six months to unearth all the woolly mammoth bones
  • French and German experts have been called in to help with the project
  • The find will give important insight about the Balkans during the ice age

By Lawrence Conway

PUBLISHED: 09:04 EST, 20 June 2012 | UPDATED: 10:36 EST, 20 June 2012


Archaeologists have discovered a rare woolly mammoth field containing the remains of at least five of the giant animals.

The experts believe the huge animals, which are related to modern Elephants, lived in the region of Serbia tens of thousands of years ago.

The discovery was made last week at the Kostolac coal mine, east of the country's capital of Belgrade, and was the first of its kind in the region.

Find: Archaeology students study the remains of a mammoth discovered at an open pit coal mine east of Belgrade in Serbia where archaeologists say they have discovered a at least five of the giant animals

Find: Archaeology students study the remains of a mammoth discovered at an open pit coal mine east of Belgrade in Serbia where archaeologists say they have discovered a at least five of the giant animals

Miomir Korac from Serbia's Archaeology Institute said the find could offer important insight about the Balkans during the ice age.

He said: 'There are millions of mammoth fragments in the world, but they are rarely so accessible for exploration.

'A mammoth field can offer incredible information and shed light on what life looked like in these areas during the ice age.'

Painstaking: Miomir Korac, left, the director of the Viminacium archaeological park, and fellow archaeologists, working yesterday on a mammoth tusk at the open pit coal mine in Serbia

Painstaking: Miomir Korac, left, the director of the Viminacium archaeological park, and fellow archaeologists, working yesterday on a mammoth tusk at the open pit coal mine in Serbia

Mammoth graveyard: Miomir Korac, left, climbing up part of the site where remains of at least five of the giant beasts that lived tens of thousands of years ago have been found

Mammoth graveyard: Miomir Korac, left, climbing up part of the site where remains of at least five of the giant beasts that lived tens of thousands of years ago have been found

Rich find: Graves from the the Roman era have also been unearthed close to a spot where the remains of the woolly mammoths were found in Serbia

Rich find: Graves from the the Roman era have also been unearthed close to a spot where the remains of the woolly mammoths were found in Serbia

The remains were found during digging for coal in an open pit that sinks to around 20 metres below ground level.

Korac said the mammoth field stretched over more than 20 acres of sandy terrain. 

In 2009, a well-preserved skeleton of a much older mammoth was found at the same site.

Vika, as the female skeleton was named, is up to one million years old and belonged to a furless breed called the southern mammoth.

Sanja Alaburic, a mammoth expert from Serbia's Museum of Natural History, said the bones discovered last month belong to woolly mammoths, which disappeared around 10,000 years ago.

Care: The archaeologists are also putting lots of care into uncovering the Roman era graves they have uncovered while working on their excavations of the mammoths who died thousands of years earlier

Care: The archaeologists are also putting lots of care into uncovering the Roman era graves they have uncovered while working on their excavations of the mammoths who died thousands of years earlier

Huge job: Serbian archaeologists have called on their colleagues in France and Germany are set to help uncover the bones in a dig which is expected to last at least six months

Huge job: Serbian archaeologists have called on their colleagues in France and Germany are set to help uncover the bones in a dig which is expected to last at least six months

Alaburic said: 'This discovery is interesting because, unusually, there are many bones in one place, probably brought there by torrential waters.'

Korac said Serbian archaeologists already have contacted colleagues in France and Germany for consultation.

He said at least six months of work will be needed before all the bones are unearthed.

Another mammoth skeleton was discovered in northern Serbia in 1996.

It belonged to a female mammoth that lived about 500,000 years ago and is now on display in the town of Kikinda, near the Hungarian border.

Past: The TV programme Woolly Mammoth: Secrets from the Ice Age showed how the huge beasts would have looked before they largely became extinct around 10,000 years ago

Past: The TV programme Woolly Mammoth: Secrets from the Ice Age showed how the huge beasts would have looked before they largely became extinct around 10,000 years ago



 

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To Open Eyes,, 20/06/ - 23:46 -- It is extremely unlikely that the mammoths lived in ice-covered regions because there would not have been enough food. Instead, they lived in the Tundra region where the conditions were similar to those of Northern Canada and Northern Siberia, now.. It is very cold in such areas but more hospitable for life than the open ice fields. Mammoths would certainly have moved further south during the winter months, just as do all the large animals which live in Canada/Siberia now.

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Mammoths moseyed around for 5 million years. Human kind - 200,000 years. Think we'll make it?

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something does not add up, Mammoth are like elephants but much bigger an elephant needs a huge amount of vegetation per day to survive, how on earth can a mammoth live in an area covered with ice, how did it feed itself when they were not meat eaters, where did it get its food from, are there scientist missing the obvious ?

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I thought this was a story about old Tory and New Labour politicians....

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didnt realise it was cold enough for Mammoths as far south as Serbia

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Maybe the mammoths shouldn't have gone into that coal mine!

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