TAPHONOMY

At this site carnivores gnawed 329 (~ 6%) of identifiable bones. Carnivore gnaw-marks are similar in morphology and size to marks made by wolf and hyena. The gnawing marks are visible especially on the heads and condyles of limb bones and the diaphyses. It is possible that large carnivores broke some of the bones.

Femur epiphysis

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Approximately 1% of identifiable elements show marks that may be the result of trampling, indicating the bone deposit was visited several times by mammoths before its final burial. Some of the bones were also broken by trampling.

Most bones exhibit no weathering (Behrensmeyer Stage 0, no signs of decay). Only about 8% of the total assemblage show the early stage of weathering (Stage 1) and only about 0,2% bones exhibit weathering in Behrensmeyer's Stages 2 and 3. Some specimens therefore appear to have been exposed longer than others on ground surfaces.

It is possible that this huge mammoth bone assemblage was deposited in the same place where the mammoths died. Olga Soffer proposed that such deposits - containing large numbers of mammoth bones together with the presence of all skeletal elements and all age classes, as well as a scarcity of cut marks and a relatively extensive record of scavenger gnaw marks - are non-cultural accumulations. Such a large skeletal accumulation at Kraków Spadzista Street (B) (71 mammoths) on such a relatively small surface (~ 140 sq. m.) suggests a place where a prolonged process of bone accumulation occurred and not a location where a single death event took place.

General plan of the distribution of bones and teeth

This hypothesis is confirmed by the presence of trampling marks and different weathering stages visible on the mammoth bone surfaces. It is impossible to know if Kraków Spadzista Street (B) reflects human hunting of mammoth herds or of individual animals or if the bones resulted from the natural mortality of mammoths with subsequent utilization of the animal carcasses by Paleolithic people. It is possible that the site represents a combination of these different events.