Across the plains of what is now Ukraine, long before agriculture had revolutionized human life, groups of hunter-gatherers encountered winters so extreme that the only ways to survive required uncommon ingenuity. Large circular dwellings constructed almost entirely from mammoth bones were a striking testimony to that ingenuity at the Upper Paleolithic site of Mezhyrich in Cherkasy Oblast, which archaeologists discovered decades ago. For several decades, researchers have often debated whether these structures were residential, storage, or symbolic in purpose.
A new study now revisits Mezhyrich with sharper analytical tools. Using advanced radiocarbon dating on remains of small mammals recovered from the same cultural layers as the bone structures, researchers have produced a more reliable timeline than earlier estimates based exclusively on mammoth bones. Their findings date the construction and use of the largest bone structure—referred to as Mammoth Bone Structure 4—between approximately 18,248 and 17,764 years ago, deep within the coldest stage of the last Ice Age.
What is remarkable about this revised chronology is its brevity. The data indicate an occupation that lasted somewhere between a single visit and several centuries. It is not impossible that there were repeated short-term arrivals, but based on the evidence, a limited presence seems more probable than a long-lived settlement. The interpretation thus suggests a practical purpose: a refuge for temporary occupation in unforgiving conditions, rather than a permanent village.
The findings give further weight to the idea that hunter-gatherers in the region were highly adaptive to these types of environments, where scarce timber and frozen landscapes were dealt with by reusing the massive bones of mammoths as construction material. The resulting shelters afforded protection and stability, revealing an ability to work with on-hand resources during one of the most challenging climatic periods in human history.
This study also underlines that sampling strategy plays a very important role in archaeological research. While new radiocarbon ages now refine Mezhyrich’s chronology, they also reveal lingering uncertainties. Variations within lower layers of different features, a lack of comprehensive records of past excavations, and the inherent limitations of radiocarbon modelling make it difficult to map subtle shifts in occupation through time. The researchers stress that any detailed understanding regarding the sequence of events at the site is going to require further targeted sampling from key features, including deeper layers of Structure 4, specific pits, and areas with undisturbed stratigraphy.
Future work that integrates multiple dating methods, detailed sediment analyses, and additional samples from charcoal and smaller animal bones might eventually provide a clearer sense of how often Ice Age groups returned to Mezhyrich and how the bone-built structures fit within their wider pattern of movement.
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