Radiocarbon chronology of woolly mammoth ( Mammuthus primigenius) from Poland

Abstract

In Central Europe, a major gap in the radiocarbon chronology of Mammuthus primigenius has resulted from the absence of dated records in most of the area north of the Sudetes and Carpathian mountains. This paper presents almost 60 directly dated mammoth remains, based both on new research and published sources from the whole of Poland. The dates, ranging from ca. 54 to 15 cal. ka BP (51.8–12.6 ka BP), are correlated with Marine Isotope Stage 3 (MIS 3) and MIS 2 of the Late Pleistocene. The mammoth was able to colonise this region at least three to four times. The number of mammoths was probably reduced during the middle of MIS 3, between ca. 43.2 cal. ka BP (39.0 ka BP) and 40.6 cal. ka BP (35.9 ka BP), as well as between ca. 34.8 cal. ka BP (30.5 ka BP) and 32.1 cal. ka BP (27.4 ka BP). Also, at the beginning of MIS 2 ca. 27.5 cal. ka. BP (ca. 22.8 ka BP) woolly mammoth probably became very rare in the studied area until ca. 24 cal. ka BP (ca. 20.2 ka BP), the beginning of H2 cold event. In the middle of MIS 2, between ca. 24.1 cal. ka BP to ca. 18.3 cal. ka BP (ca. 20.2 ka BP to ca. 14.6 ka BP), Mammuthus withdrew from Poland entirely. From ca. 18.3 cal. ka BP (ca. 14.6 ka BP) to 15.0 cal. ka BP (12.6 ka BP) the mammoth reoccupied part of its former range, the south-eastern part of Poland (Lublin Upland) and the easternmost part of Sudetes foothills and the upper Odra river valley. The marked loss of open habitats at the beginning of the Lateglacial Interstadial was followed by the retreat and extinction of M. primigenius in southern Poland around 15.0 cal. ka BP (12.6 ka BP).