De vondst van de maand: De opgraving van de mammoet van Borne

Remains of a woolly mammoth were discovered during digging activities in the bed of a small river near Borne in the mid-eastern part of the Netherlands. During the rescue-excavation, lasting two weeks and covering more than 120 square meters, 64 more or less undamaged bones were recovered. All parts belonged to the same individual mammoth: The first 8 vertebrae, 18 bones of the right forefoot (manus dext.) and 6 bones of the right rearfoot (tarsus dext.) are fitting perfectly together, no doublets were found. Skull, mandible and molars were absent. The bones were discovered ’in situ’ in a formation formed in the Middle Weichselien by riverdeposits. Former investigations of this layer, in which more mammalian fossils were discovered, placed it between 42.000 and 34.000 years B.P. Investigations of the fusion between joints and bone brought an estimated age between 10 – 20 years; its height derived from the length of the right humerus (92,5 cm) probably between 250 – 275 cm.