A revised radiocarbon chronology of the monumental 18,000 y/o Upper #Paleolithic #mammoth bone structures of Mezhyrich in central #Ukraine suggests, it may have been used used for up to 429 years:
https://www.sci.news/archaeology/mammoth-bone-structures-ukraine-14448.html
Original study:
Wei Chu et al., A revised radiocarbon chronology for the mammoth bone structures and associated features at Mezhyrich, Ukraine, Open Research Europe 2025. 🔓
@jens2go @ClemensSchmid Unfortunately I have to agree with the reviewers (cool that these are open!) that the chronological modelling in this paper does not support the claims it makes.
In particular, the headline that the structures were "used for up to 429 years" conflates the uncertainty of the #radiocarbon dates with the occupation span of the site.
In reality the radiocarbon data offers no evidence of long-lived occupation (and hence domesticity); it just doesn't rule it out.
@joeroe Fair enough - and totally comprehensible given the wiggle room we're talking about here.
(Also pretty cool that reviews are included here, a model to follow imho.)
Jens Notroff
Joe Roe