A cold case from the last glacial maximum: A partial mammoth skeleton from southern Germany (Danube Valley, Germany) – Part 2: Fossil record, sedimentology and palaeoenvironment

• A partial skeleton of a mammoth was found that has been dated to the Last Glacial Maximum. • The mammoth was deposited in a former pond and on its banks. • The pollen record demonstrates that the mammoth died during cold stadial conditions. • Collagen isotope values agree with other mammoth finds from the so-called mammoth steppe. One tusk and remains of at least 72 skeletal elements of woolly mammoth were unearthed from deposits of a palaeo-channel fill including adjacent overbank deposits. The taphonomy and the absence of duplicate bones suggests that the recovered bones originated from a single individual. The vast majority of the long bones were missing. The bones were embedded with almost no orientation. The mammoth is of special archaeological interest because it shows traces of human activities (Pasda et al., this volume). Four radiocarbon dates gained from the same mammoth rib provide an age range for the mammoth of Taimering between 26.9 and 25.3 ka cal BP. To reconstruct the environmental context of the excavation area, the imbedding sediments were studied. Sedimentological and geochemical analyses support the stratigraphical interpretation that the bones were embedded in a former pond or slow-flowing stream, with the exception of the tusk and ilium, which were buried in topographically higher overbank deposits. Pollen analyses revealed tundra vegetation with small patches of dwarf shrubs in climatically more favorable locations. The stable carbon and nitrogen isotopes of a rib bone correspond to the pattern often observed in mammoth bones of the so-called mammoth steppe, which are particularly enriched in 15 N.