THE EFFECTS OF MAMMOTHS ON HUMANITY'S FAITH AND BUILDING ACTIVITIES

Abstract

It is highly likely that early humans, who generally lived in open nature, emptied large animal carcasses and used them as temporary shelters. This is because there are clear similarities between the mammoth skeletal system and the structural systems of constructions built by humans since prehistoric times. Early humans, who utilized deceased mammoth bodies as temporary shelters outside caves, might have later attempted to construct more permanent, taller, and wider-span huts using same materials. Many mammoth bone huts have been discovered across the Ukrainian and Russian Steppes, dating back to the Upper Paleolithic period, and these structures may be the result of such efforts. The construction method of this huts involves stacking large mammoth bones and covering them with mammoth skins. The potential impact of mammoths, which held great significance in the survival of early humans, on early belief systems and construction activities cannot be overlooked. This study aims to formulate "scientific opinions" on these issues by interpreting existing data in a relational manner. The "speculative thesis" proposed in this study suggests that even before the existence of mammoth bone huts (pre-Upper Paleolithic), individuals utilized mammoth rib cages as single-person shelters. Accordingly, early humans may have commenced constructing these huts using mammoth large bones in later periods. Thus, in later periods, even after the mammoths had disappeared, the forms of both the mammoth body, the mammoth ribcage, and the huts made of mammoth bone may have been reflected in the architectural geometry of huts, tents, and houses.