Prelude to the extinction: Revision of the Achchagyi–Allaikha and Berelyokh mass accumulations of mammoth

The Berelekh Mammoth “Graveyard”: New Chronological and Stratigraphical Data from the 2009 Field Season

“…Based on previous research, reconnaissance observations in 2004 (Pitulko et al., ; Nikolskiy et al., ) and findings in 2009, it is clear that the archaeological material and mammoth remains found along the river were eroded from the deposits of the second terrace (T2). For this reason, special attention was given to the study of this terrace and its relationship to the deposits composing the third (T3) and first (T1) terraces.…”

Wooly mammoth mass accumulation next to the Paleolithic Yana RHS site, Arctic Siberia: its geology, age, and relation to past human activity

“…Such concentrations of mammoth bones that are not related to the cultural layer of archaeological sites provide the most important comparative material for our study. These concentrations are well known in different areas of the continent: Volchyia Griva (Zenin, 2002), Shestakovo (Derevianko et al, 2000(Derevianko et al, , 2003, Lugovskoe (Leschinsky et al, 2006), Berelyokh (Nikolskiy et al, 2010a) in Siberia and Milovice (Oliva, 1988(Oliva, , 2000, and Dolni Véstonice I and II (Klima, 1963(Klima, , 1983Svoboda, 1986) in Europe. Gmelin, the first scientist to study mammoth accumulations at Kostenki in 1768, claimed to have excavated the same kind of concentration of bones from the Don River low terrace.…”

“…are the accumulation of bones and the cultural remains from the site synchronous and, if so, to which extent the human activity is expressed in the formation of YMAM. In other words, is this accumulation natural, like other mass accumulations of mammoth known within the region, such as Berelyokh and Achchaghyi-Allaikha (Nikolskiy et al, 2010a;Pitulko, 2011), or the Yana mass accumulation of mammoth has anthropogenic origin. Consequently, if it is the case, the role of mammoth in the subsistence economy of the Yana people has to be reevaluated.…”

The extinction of the woolly mammoth and the archaeological record in Northeastern Asia

“…Two Terminal Pleistocene sites in Arctic Siberia, Berelekh (Pitulko 2011a) and Achchagyi-Allaikha (Nikolskiy et al 2010), are associated with mass mammoth accumulations. It is interesting that the most intensive period of bone accumulation at Berelekh and at Achchaghyi-Allaikha took place nearly contemporaneously at 12,600-12,400 14 C BP.…”

“…This coincides with a short, strong period of climatic warming (the Bølling Oscillation). It is probable that the bone accumulations formed as a result of a single event of flood trapping at Achchagyi-Allaikha and multiple similar events at Berelekh (Nikolskiy et al 2010).…”