Why mammoth bones made practical building material for ice age humans

Building shelters from mammoth bone was a practical response to the environment ice age hunters actually inhabited, rather than an eccentric choice, according to researchers studying the Mezhyrich site in central Ukraine. Wood was extremely scarce across the open, treeless tundra landscapes of ice age Europe, while mammoth bones and tusks, from animals both hunted and scavenged from natural deaths, offered an abundant and structurally useful alternative.

Skulls, ribs and tusks could be carefully stacked into sturdy circular frames strong enough to support a covering, likely animal hide, creating shelter from the wind and extreme cold of the surrounding tundra.

A new study led by Wei Chu of Leiden University, published on the Open Research Europe platform, dated the largest of four circular structures at the site, known as MBS4, to between roughly 18,248 and 17,764 years old, placing its use within the harshest phase of the last Ice Age.

Around the mammoth bone structures, researchers have documented pits filled with tools and animal remains, along with areas set aside for butchering carcasses and crafting stone implements — features that led some archaeologists to describe the site as an economical settlement unit organised around the demands of survival.