Remodeling a home or business usually includes a lot of demolition before the upgrades can begin.
For most people the process is relatively simple and the job is completed without issue.
But what this man discovered while remodeling his wine cellar will put your jaw on the floor.
Man uncovers bones in wine cellar
Andreas Pernerstorfer, an Austrian winemaker, recently decided to renovate his wine cellar, and he ultimately uncovered a fascinating and unusual treasure in the process.
The discovery is much rarer than even the finest wine: massive bones that turned out to be those of extinct mammoths dating to the Stone Age.
Experts say the site contains the bones of at least three mammoths after they uncovered a layer of bones on top of each other.
The wine cellar, located in the small village of Gobelsburg, is in a part of northeastern Austria.
Austrian Academy of Sciences researcher Hannah Parow-Souchon, who is directing the excavation, said that she’s “worked in many parts of the world and have never seen so many mammoths in one place.”
During a telephone interview, Parow-Souchon said her and her team’s reaction to the scope and scale of the discovery, which was first uncovered in March, was met with “shock and excitement.”
According to the academy, the discovery is “the most significant find of this kind in more than 100 years.”
The researchers estimate the mammoth bones are somewhere between 30,000 and 40,000 years old.
They learned to determine the age of the bones more accurately by dating charcoal from the wine cellar.
Incredibly, other artifacts were discovered in a nearby cellar 150 years ago, including flint artifacts, jewelry fossils, and charcoal.
It is believed that the most recent finds could be a part of the same site, from the same period, according to Parow-Souchon.
She says the sediment in the area has helped to preserve the bones and other finds “very well.”
The discovery poses many questions for researchers, including how the massive animals came to be buried at this particular location.
In a statement from the academy, Parow-Souchon said, “We know that humans hunted mammoths, but we still know very little about how we did it.”
She added that it was unclear whether the three mammoths died where they were found or if hunters chased them and set a trap there.
More research is ongoing
Once the discovery was reported, researchers started to examine the bones and plan to give them to the Natural History Museum Vienna for restoration.
The academy statement said that “other comparable sites in Austria and neighboring countries were mostly excavated at least 100 years ago and have largely been lost to modern research.”
A mammoth tusk was recently found during the construction of a subway line in the Austrian capital city of Vienna.
Although these massive animals died millennia ago, mammoths are still a source of fascination and interest for scientists.
A Dallas-based biotech company announced that it had come a step closer to realizing its plans to revive the wooly mammoth or a mammoth-like elephant that can survive in the cold earlier this year.
US Political Daily will keep you updated on any developments to this ongoing story.
