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Woman already put sensational attic find "in the dustbin" - now it inspires science

2023-03-11T11:41:31.646Z


A woman clears out her attic and finds bones that she already puts in the garbage can. But she turns to archaeologists. These determine: It is, among other things, mammoth bones.


A woman clears out her attic and finds bones that she already puts in the garbage can.

But she turns to archaeologists.

These determine: It is, among other things, mammoth bones.

Munich/Soest - Do you actually know what's in your attic?

A woman from Soest made a surprising discovery while clearing out hers.

Bones of a mammoth appeared in a box.

Unusual finds like this happen all the time.

A girl discovered a five-inch megalodon tooth on a beach that belonged to a prehistoric shark.

And the woman from Soest also held 15,000-year-old bones in her hands.

Sensational find in the attic: woman wanted to throw away mammoth bones

"I've already put it in the garbage cans," said Simone Grundmann about the tens of thousands of years old find.

The fact that she didn't throw away the old box with bones after clearing out her attic is fortunate for the history of the city of Soest in North Rhine-Westphalia.

When Grundmann hands the find over to the city archeology experts, they quickly realize that the bones must come from a larger animal.

Maybe from an elephant?

"I never dared to hope that it was something older," said archaeologist Julia Ricken.

But the analyzes showed that it was the remains of a woolly mammoth, among other things.

The bones are at least 15,000 years old - the oldest find in the city.

"It's just nice that such a round thing came out of it," said Grundmann.

In this way, the memory of the actual finder, her father Franz-Josef, who died in 2015, can be revived.

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Archaeologist Julia Ricken (l) and finder Simone Grundmann look at the bones of a 15,000-year-old woolly mammoth.

© Guido Kirchner/dpa

Last fall - "thanks to the energy crisis" - she insulated the attic of her family home and cleared out the clutter, Grundmann said.

Soon she had the box with the bones at her feet.

"My father told me about it at some point, but I didn't think about it anymore," said Grundmann.

Her father ran a tree nursery in the north of Soest in the 1980s and stumbled on his bones while digging.

Grundmann recalled that he probably also tried to have the find examined.

But this did not happen.

"Maybe he had a gut feeling.

I guess he didn't pick them up there for nothing," she said.

Sensational find in the attic: bones of a mammoth and three other animals

Everyone would have advised her: "Throw those things away," she said.

"But that didn't feel right." Instead, she took the bones to the city archaeology.

According to archaeologist Ricken, specialists found out that the bones were from a woolly mammoth, a woolly rhinoceros and a steppe bison.

They are at least 15,000 years old.

Mammoths were extinct in the area at the time.

The finds could also be older.

In view of the expensive analysis required for this, they were not precisely dated for the time being.

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Archaeologist Julia Ricken (l) and finder Simone Grundmann, who found the bones in her attic.

© Guido Kirchner/dpa

The archaeologist explains that bones from three different animals were found as follows: The location does not have to be the exact place of death.

With finds this old, it is therefore quite possible that the bones were thrown around in the ground during the Ice Age.

According to Ricken, the bones should be exhibited as soon as possible in the municipal courtyard museum.

"I think my father smiles up there," said Grundmann.

Scarier was a find in Peru.

An approximately 800-year-old mummy was found tied up there.

(vk/dpa)

List of rubrics: © Guido Kirchner/dpa

Source: merkur

All news articles on 2023-03-11

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