At a construction site for a new courthouse (Justice Palace) in Bukov, a district of Ústí nad Labem in northern Bohemia (Czech Republic), archaeologists uncovered a major Late Gravettian site with remains of at least 20 woolly mammoths from around 27,000 years ago.

The discovery began by chance in November 2024 during routine archaeological monitoring of earthworks. Systematic excavations in 2025, involving teams including the Institute of Archaeology in Brno and local heritage institutes, revealed more than 3,500 animal remains across roughly 1,000 square meters (about the size of four tennis courts).

These were sealed in silt. Identification of the mammoths relied mainly on 19 lower jaws plus one isolated tooth. Other Ice Age species present included woolly rhinoceros, horse, reindeer, and hare. Nearly all parts of the mammoth skeletons appeared, but skulls and tusks were scarce.

Cut marks on bones, broken stone points and tools, the mortality profile (mostly sexually mature but still-growing animals aged roughly 13- 27 years, unlikely to die naturally in such numbers) point to repeated human hunting and systematic butchery rather than a natural die- off or random accumulation.

Charcoal from four hearths yielded radiocarbon dates of approximately 28,800- 25,600 years before present. Stone- tool styles confirm the Late Gravettian cultural attribution. Additional finds include red ochre and a pendant made from mammoth ivory, indicating symbolic or cultural activity alongside processing of the carcasses.

This site is notable as a geographic and temporal outlier: comparable Gravettian mammoth -bone deposits are known from Moravia, Lower Austria, and southern Poland, but nothing similar had previously been documented in Bohemia, and later- period examples are rare.

A 2026 study in the Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports details the findings. Construction of the courthouse complex (which will house courts, administrative space, and parking for hundreds of staff) was delayed by the excavation work and is now targeted for completion around May 2028; the building will rise on the site after the archaeological remains have been documented and removed.

It highlights how modern construction can still yield major Paleolithic insights into Ice Age hunter- gatherer life in central Europe.

Upper Palaeolithic (also spelled Upper Paleolithic) is the final subdivision of the Palaeolithic (Old Stone Age), roughly spanning 50,000/45,000 to 12,000/10,000 years ago (ending with the close of the last Ice Age / Pleistocene).

It marks a major shift in human behavior associated primarily with anatomically modern Homo sapiens in Europe, western Asia, and parts of Africa and Siberia.

Key characteristics include:

• Technological advances: Blade- based stone tool industries (long, thin flakes), specialized tools (burins, scrapers, points), bone/antler/ivory tools, and early projectile weapons. Cultures are named after type- sites or distinctive tool types (e.g., Aurignacian, Gravettian, Solutrean, Magdalenian).
• Symbolic and artistic expression: Widespread cave art (e.g., Lascaux, Chauvet, Altamira), portable art (figurines such as Venus figurines), personal ornaments (beads, pendants), and use of ochre. Evidence of complex social and possibly ritual behavior.
• Subsistence and mobility: Highly skilled big- game hunting (including mammoths, reindeer, horses, bison), fishing, and gathering. Seasonal camps, longer- distance raw- material exchange, and denser populations in favorable regions.
• Chronology and cultures in Europe (approximate):
  • Early Upper Palaeolithic: ~45- 30 ka (Aurignacian dominant).
  • Mid: ~30- 22 ka (Gravettian).
  • Late: ~22- 12 ka (Solutrean in southwest Europe; Epigravettian elsewhere; then Magdalenian).

The Gravettian culture (roughly 33,000- 22,000 years ago), to which the recently reported Bukov / Ústí and Labem mammoth site in northern Bohemia belongs, is a classic mid- Upper Palaeolithic tradition. It is known for sophisticated hunting of large mammals (including repeated mammoth processing sites), bladelet tools, and early artistic traditions. The ~27,000- year- old dates from the Bohemian hearths and fauna fit squarely in the Late Gravettian.

The period ends with the transition to the Mesolithic as climates warmed, large Ice Age fauna declined, and human societies adapted to forested post- glacial environments.

Gravettian culture (roughly 33,000- 22,000 years ago, or ~33- 22 ka cal BP) was a major Upper Palaeolithic tradition of modern humans (Homo sapiens) across much of Europe.

It is best known for sophisticated blade and bladelet technologies (including distinctive Gravette points), specialized big- game hunting (especially woolly mammoths, reindeer, and horses), portable art (e.g., Venus’s figurines), and evidence of complex social organization, long- distance raw- material transport, and symbolic behavior (ochre use, ornaments).

The culture developed and flourished during a period of progressive climatic deterioration within Marine Isotope Stage 3 (MIS 3) that ultimately led into the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) of MIS 2 (~26.5- 19 ka cal BP).

Climate Context

• The broader period featured repeated, rapid oscillations between colder stadials (Greenland Stadials, GS) and milder interstadials (Greenland Interstadials, GI), recorded in Greenland ice cores, plus occasional Heinrich Events (massive iceberg discharges that caused abrupt cooling and aridity).
• Key events overlapping the Gravettian include Heinrich Event 3 (HE3, ~30 ka) near the start of the Middle and Late Gravettian and HE2 (~24 ka) near its end.
• Overall trend: steady cooling through late MIS 3, with increasingly severe winters, expanding ice sheets, lower sea levels, and a shift toward open, cold, arid “mammoth- steppe” landscapes (grasses, herbs, and cold- tolerant shrubs rather than dense forest). Summer insolation declined, contributing to harsher conditions.
• In central Europe (including the Czech Republic, the Bohemia- Moravia region relevant to the recent Bukov mammoth site), pollen, charcoal, and faunal records indicate open, cool, and relatively arid environments with limited tree cover (mostly cold- tolerant conifers in sheltered spots). Conditions supported productive grasslands that sustained large herds of mammoth, reindeer, and other megafauna, but winters were long and severe, with expanding permafrost in many areas.

Late Gravettian occupations (including sites around 28- 25 ka, such as the Bukov, Ústí nad Labem mammoth- processing site dated ~28.8- 25.6 ka) occurred amid significant climatic instability (e.g., transitions through GS 5.1, GI 4, GS 4, and GI 3).

Climate Impacts on Gravettian People

Climate strongly shaped settlement, technology, mobility, and subsistence:

• Subsistence and hunting strategies: Cold, open steppe environments favored large migratory or semi-sedentary herds of mammoths and reindeer. Hunters adapted by targeting specific age classes or seasons (e.g., autumn reindeer hunts for peak fat, hides, and antler). Climatic shifts altered mammoth demography, migration patterns, and local abundance, prompting changes in weaponry (projectile point size and variety) and site placement. Mammoth- bone deposits (as at Bukov and classic Moravian sites like Dolní Věstonice or Milovice) reflect repeated, organized processing of carcasses in productive but fluctuating environments.
• Technology and innovation: Some researchers argue that cooling and resource unpredictability helped drive Gravettian lithic innovations, efficient blade and bladelet production, standardized backed points, and highly mobile, modular toolkits suited to long- distance travel and maintenance under harsh conditions.
• Settlement and demography: Early- and mid- Gravettian saw relatively dense occupation in favorable river valleys and loess regions of central and eastern Europe. As cooling intensified toward the LGM, populations declined sharply in many areas (some estimates suggest reductions to one-third of earlier levels in parts of Europe). Groups either migrated (southward or to refugia), became more mobile, or experienced local extinctions. Northern and higher- elevation zones became less hospitable; sites cluster in protected valleys or lower altitudes. The Late Gravettian in Bohemia/Moravia represents a geographic and temporal outlier relative to earlier concentrations farther east and south.
• Landscape and preservation: Reduced vegetation and landscape instability (erosion during arid phases) affected both living conditions and the archaeological record. Hearths, ochre, and ivory ornaments (as found at Bukov) show continuity of cultural practices even under stress.

After ~22 ka, as the full LGM set in, classic Gravettian traditions largely gave way to regional successors (Solutrean in the southwest, Epigravettian farther east). Some genetic and archaeological lineages persisted in southern refugia and later expanded with post- glacial warming.

In short, the Gravettian represents a successful long- term adaptation to a cooling, increasingly unstable Ice Age world, exploiting the rich but challenging mammoth- steppe ecosystem through technological sophistication, logistical hunting, and cultural complexity, until the most extreme LGM conditions forced major demographic and cultural shifts.

The recent Bohemian find fits this picture well: a Late Gravettian mammoth- hunting and processing locale operating during a phase of climatic variability in a region that was becoming more marginal.

Comparison of the Gravettian with earlier and later Upper Palaeolithic periods in Europe highlights both continuity and major shifts driven by technology, climate, demography, art, and genetics.

The sequence is broadly: Aurignacian (earlier) → Gravettian (mid) → regional successors during and after the Last Glacial Maximum (Solutrean in the southwest, Epigravettian farther east and south) → Magdalenian (later, mainly western and central Europe).

Earlier: Aurignacian (~43,000/42,000- 33,000/30,000 years ago)

• Technology: Emphasized blades, carinated scrapers, and distinctive bone and antler points (especially split- base points). Toolkits were versatile but less standardized for composite projectiles than later ones. Organic technology (bone, antler, ivory) was already advanced.
• Art and symbolism: Early figurative art, music (bone flutes), and personal ornaments appear (e.g., Lion-Man of Hohlenstein- Stadel, early Venus- like figures, cave art beginnings). Symbolic behavior is well- established but often more individual or site- specific.
• Subsistence and settlement: Broad- spectrum hunting of large game in relatively milder MIS 3 conditions. Populations expanded across Europe after modern humans largely replaced Neanderthals. Sites show mobility but somewhat less logistical organization than Gravettian mammoth specialists.
• Climate: More interstadial fluctuations within MIS 3; environments still supported mixed forests and steppe in many areas.
• Genetics and continuity: Western European Gravettians show genetic continuity with preceding western Aurignacians. Central and southern Gravettians relate more to local earlier groups. The Gravettian represents a technological and cultural reorganization rather than a complete population replacement.

Key differences from Gravettian: Aurignacian toolkits are less focused on backed bladelets and standardized points for projectiles. Gravettian art shifts toward more portable female figurines (Venus types) and widespread ochre use, with greater emphasis on mammoth hunting and long-distance networks. Gravettian develops during progressive cooling.

Later: Solutrean (~24,000/22,000- 19,000/17,000 years ago, mainly southwest Europe- France and Iberia)

• Technology: Peak of pressure- flaked lithic craftsmanship with exquisite bifacial leaf- shaped (laurel-leaf) points. Bone and antler tools exist but are generally less diversified than in Aurignacian or Magdalenian. Eyed needles appear, suggesting tailored clothing for extreme cold.
• Art and settlement: Continuity of cave art traditions in refugia. Populations contracted into southwestern climatic refugia during the full LGM.
• Climate impact: Developed under the harshest LGM conditions (maximum ice extent, extreme cold and aridity). This forced major demographic reduction and geographic restriction compared with the broader Gravettian range.
• Genetics: Western Gravettian ancestry largely survived into Solutrean groups in the southwest.

Key differences: Solutrean is more regionally restricted and specialized for extreme cold. Lithic technology is highly refined but narrower in focus; organic technology is less elaborate than later Magdalenian. It acts as a “bottleneck” culture in refugia.

Later: Epigravettian (~24,000/22,000- 12,000/10,000 years ago, mainly Italy, Balkans, eastern and central Europe)

• Often viewed archaeologically as a continuation or local development of Gravettian traditions (backed points persist), but genetic evidence shows significant turnover and replacement in southern Europe around the LGM, with north-to-south dispersals of new groups.
• Technology continues bladelet and backed- point traditions but adapts regionally. It fills the role of the “late Upper Palaeolithic” east of the Alps where classic Magdalenian is absent or limited.
• Climate: Spans the LGM and the subsequent deglaciation and warming.

Later: Magdalenian (~17,000/18,000- 12,000/11,000 years ago, mainly western and central Europe)

• Technology: Highly diversified organic tools (harpoons, spear- throwers and atlatls, eyed needles, elaborate bone and antler working). Lithics include blades and some microliths. Greater emphasis on fishing and a wider range of prey as climates improved.
• Art: Culmination of Upper Palaeolithic art – spectacular polychrome cave paintings (Lascaux, Altamira), detailed engravings, and portable art. Often more narrative and naturalistic scenes.
• Settlement and demography: Population rebound and re- expansion northeastward after the LGM as ice retreated and forests spread. Larger, more semi- sedentary groups in productive river valleys; evidence of higher population densities.
• Climate: Post- LGM warming (still cold but improving), transition toward the end of the Pleistocene. Mammoth steppe declined; reindeer and horse remained important.
• Genetics: Largely descends from the western Gravettian- Solutrean lineage that survived in southwestern refugia, then expanded. Later (~14 ka) partially replaced by southern (“Villabruna-related”) ancestry linked to Epigravettian groups.

Key differences from Gravettian: Magdalenian shows greater organic technological elaboration, artistic peak, and demographic expansion into newly available northern territories. Hunting shifts away from the classic mammoth focus of many Gravettian sites as megafauna declined. It represents a post- glacial “golden age” of Upper Palaeolithic complexity in the west.

Broader Patterns

Aspect	Aurignacian (earlier)	Gravettian	Solutrean / Epigravettian (LGM)	Magdalenian (later)
Climate	Milder MIS 3 fluctuations	Progressive cooling to LGM	Full LGM extremes	Post- LGM warming
Range	Broad Europe	Pan- European	Restricted (SW or E/S)	Western and central expansion
Key tech	Blades, split- base points	Backed points, bladelets, mammoth focus	Leaf points (Solutrean) or continued backed (Epigravettian)	Harpoons, needles, diversified organics
Art	Early figurative, flutes	Venus figurines, ochre	Continuity in refugia	Peak cave & portable art
Demography	Expansion	Dense then declining	Bottleneck and refugia	Rebound & expansion
Genetics	Foundational	Regional continuity with Aurignacian	SW survival (Solutrean); turnover in south (Epigravettian)	SW Gravettian-Solutrean and later southern input

The Gravettian sits at a pivotal midpoint: building on Aurignacian foundations with more specialized hunting and symbolic systems suited to cooling climates, then giving way (through both cultural evolution and population shifts) to LGM adaptations and the post- glacial florescence of the Magdalenian.

The Bohemian Late Gravettian mammoth site (~27 ka) falls near the end of this tradition, just before the most severe LGM conditions forced major contractions and regional divergences.