Radiocarbon chronology of woolly mammoth ( Mammuthus primigenius) from Poland

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Radiocarbon chronology of woolly mammoth (Mammuthus primigenius) fromPoland

Adam Nadachowski*, Grzegorz Lipecki, Piotr Wojtal, Barbara MiekinaInstitute of Systematics and Evolution of Animals, Polish Academy of Sciences, Sławkowska 17, 31-016 Kraków, Poland

a r t i c l e i n f o

Article history:Available online 27 March 2011

a b s t r a c t

In Central Europe, a major gap in the radiocarbon chronology of Mammuthus primigenius has resultedfrom 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 andpublished sources from the whole of Poland. The dates, ranging from ca. 54 to 15 cal. ka BP (51.8e12.6 kaBP), are correlated with Marine Isotope Stage 3 (MIS 3) and MIS 2 of the Late Pleistocene. The mammothwas able to colonise this region at least three to four times. The number of mammoths was probablyreduced 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 kaBP), 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 thebeginning of MIS 2 ca. 27.5 cal. ka. BP (ca. 22.8 ka BP) woolly mammoth probably became very rare in thestudied 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 withdrewfrom 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 mammothreoccupied part of its former range, the south-eastern part of Poland (Lublin Upland) and the eastern-most part of Sudetes foothills and the upper Odra river valley. The marked loss of open habitats at thebeginning of the Lateglacial Interstadial was followed by the retreat and extinction of M. primigenius insouthern Poland around 15.0 cal. ka BP (12.6 ka BP).

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1. Introduction

Remains of Mammuthus primigenius are amongst the mostcommon Late Pleistocene fossil finds of the mid and northern lati-tudes of the Northern Hemisphere. There is now sufficient chrono-metric evidence available for a reconstruction of the spatiotemporalpattern of extinction of the woolly mammoth from Europe and Asia(Stuart et al., 2002, 2004; Stuart, 2005; Álvarez-Lao et al., 2009;Kuzmin, 2010) as well as North America (Agenbroad, 1989;MacPhee, 2007; Álvarez-Lao et al., 2009). Whereas the extinctionof the mammoth seems to be well-known for most of western,southern and north-eastern Europe (e.g. Stuart et al., 2002, 2004;Ukkonen et al., 2008; Aaris-Sørensen, 2009; Álvarez-Lao et al.,2009; Sommer and Benecke, 2009), in some regions of centralEurope there has been a major gap in the radiocarbon chronologyresulting from the absence of dated records.

In Poland a very large number of fossil remains of M. primigeniushave been discovered over the last 170 years. Kowalski (1959)reported over 220 localities from this area. New fossils of

mammoth from Poland have come to light during the last fewdecades, when, gravel-pits and Palaeolithic sites have been exca-vated. The bones ofM. primigenius have been frequently found in theLate Pleistocene sediments of southern Poland. Kubiak (1965) addedalmost 50 new sites to the previously known list from the foothills ofthe Polish Carpathians. These were mostly finds of tusks, molars orisolated bones without archaeological context or confirmed geolog-ical provenance. Amongst these numerous remains two spectacular,almost complete, skulls of mammoth are included from Debica andBzianka near Rzeszów (Kubiak, 1980) (Fig. 1). Remains are oftenfound during the exploitation of gravel-pits, such as that in Krosinkonear Pozna�n (Lorenc and Paw1owska, 2010), river banks or evenaccidentally during cartographic work such as the recent discoveriesin Janowice, in the Outer Western Carpathians (Cieszkowski et al.,2010). Remains of single mammoth individuals are known fromsites such as Niedzica in the Pieniny Mountains (Kulczycki andHalicki, 1950), Skaratki near qowicz (Chmielewski and Kubiak,1962), Kraków Nowa Huta (Koz1owski et al., 1970), Zemborzycenear Lublin (Jakubowski, 1972), Warszawa (Jakubowski, 1973),Wroc1aw-Oporów (Wiszniowska et al., 2003), Hallera Av.-Wroc1aw,site 1 (Wi�sniewski et al., 2009a), and Zastru _ze near Strzegom(Wi�sniewski et al., 2009b; Krzemi�nska et al., 2010). On the other

* Corresponding author.E-mail address: [email protected] (A. Nadachowski).

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hand, in caves, only isolated mammoth bones or teeth have beenfound (Wojtal, 2007) e.g. in Ob1azowa Cave near Nowy Targ in theCarpathians (Kubiak, 2003) and in Komarowa Cave in the Czesto-chowa Upland (Nadachowski et al., 2009). However, most of the newremains, sometimes in large numbers, were collected from open-airarchaeological sites and usually fromwell-recognized stratigraphicalcontexts. The best known are those of the Kraków Spadzista Streetcomplex (Koz1owski and Kubiak, 1972; Koz1owski et al., 1974, 1975;Koz1owski and Sobczyk, 1987; West, 1996) where, in the KrakówSpadzista Street (B) site alone, an assemblage of more than 8000remains belonging to at least 86 individuals has been found (Wojtaland Sobczyk, 2005; Kalicki et al., 2007; Wojtal, 2007) (Fig. 2).

New direct dates of material comprising the remains ofM. primigenius have come frommany parts of Poland. This paper, forthe first time, presents a significantly higher number of radiocarbondates on mammoths from the area north of the Sudetes and Car-pathian mountains.

2. Pattern of Late Pleistocene extinction of Mammuthusprimigenius in Poland

The establishment of a reliable chronology of mammoth range ch-anges in each zoogeographical region is essential for a reconstruction

Fig. 1. Woolly mammoth (M. primigenius) skull from Bzianka near Rzeszów, dated to14,080 � 165 years BP (conventional 14C date). The skull is stored in Museum of NaturalHistory, Institute of Systematics and Evolution of Animals PAS, Kraków, Poland.

Fig. 2. A part of the woolly mammoth killing site in Kraków Spadzista Street (B). Themammoth remains fromthis siteweredated to around28e29 cal. ka BP (around24kaBP).

Fig. 3. Distribution of radiocarbon dates for woolly mammoth (M. primigenius)material from Poland (listed in Table 1). The approximate southernmost ice sheet limitduring the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) is illustrated by the dashed line (Ehlers andGibbard, 2004). 1 e 14C AMS dates for younger part of MIS 2 (Lateglacial); 2 e 14CAMS dates for the onset of the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM); 3 - 14C AMS dates for theMIS 3; 4 e questioned dates due to low collagen or carbon content, ages appear tooyoung; 5 - conventional 14C dates or date obtained by the GPC technique.

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Table 1Radiocarbon dates of M. primigenius remains from Poland.

Site Region Lab code 14C years BP Cal. years BP (68% range) Material Dated %N:%C(of whole bone)

Source

Dzier _zys1awa 1 LuS-7739 12,585 � 70 14,935 � 301 (14,633e15,236) tooth Arppe and Karhu,2010

Dzier _zys1aw 1 Poz-10135 13,180 � 60 16,108 � 392 (15,715e16,500) Wojtal, 2007Dzier _zys1aw 1 GdA-70 13,220 � 70 16,151 � 404 (15,746e16,555) Ginter et al., 2002Dzier _zys1aw 1 GdA-193 13,370 � 80 16,305 � 424 (15,881e16,729) Wojtal, 2007Dzier _zys1aw 1 GdA-69 13,500 � 80 16,448 � 415 (16,033e16,863) Ginter et al., 2002Bzianka 2 Lu-1346 14,080 � 165b e e cranium Kubiak, 1980Lublin-Kalinowszczyzna 3 Poz-28222 14,140 � 70 17,378 � 242 (17,136e17,620) femur MCH 5.5:17.5 this paperDzier _zys1aw 1 Poz-10136 14,150 � 70 17,388 � 244 (17,143e17,632) Wojtal, 2007Zamo�s�c 4 Poz-28774 14,510 � 70 17,651 � 244 (17,406e17,895) scapula MZ 1.0:3.6 this paperKaweczyn 5 Poz-28221 14,620 � 80 17,939 � 380 (17,559e18,319) tooth MZ 3.1:10.8 this paperOb1azowa Cave, layer VIII 6 OxA-3694 18,160 � 260c 21,844 � 420 (21,423e22,264) ivory Valde-Nowak et al.,

2003Wroc1aw-Oporów 7 Gd-10412 18,700 � 270b e e tusk GPCd Bluszcz and Pazdur,

2003Kraków Spadzista Street (C2) 8 OxA-635 20,200 � 350 24,114 � 472 (23,641e24,586) tusk Gowlett et al., 1986Wróblowa-Ujazd 9 Poz-31463 20,320 � 120 24,264 � 303 (23,960e24,567) tusk MRJ 2.1:6.6 this paperKraków Spadzista Street (B) 8 Ly-631 20,600 � 1050b e e bone Koz1owski et al., 1974Kraków Zwierzyniec 8 LuS-7421 22,800 � 150 27,460 � 411 (27,048e27,871) tooth Arppe and Karhu, 2010Kraków Spadzista Street (B) 8 Poz-242 23,020 � 180 27,586 � 450 (27,135e28,036) bone Wojtal and Sobczyk,

2005Sandomierz 10 Poz-29293 23,070 � 130 27,627 � 441 (27,185e28,068) mandible MNKi 1.5:6.0 this paper�Swilcza 2 Poz-31462 23,540 � 150 28,465 � 364 (28,101e28,829) tooth MOR 2.2:6.2 this paperKraków Spadzista Street (B) 8 Poz-1248 23,750 � 140 28,668 � 405 (28,263e29,073) bone Wojtal and Sobczyk,

2005Kraków Spadzista Street (B) 8 LuS-7417 23,750 � 150 28,670 � 407 (28,262e29,077) tooth Arppe and Karhu, 2010Kraków Spadzista Street (C2) 8 LuS-7418 23,750 � 150 28,670 � 407 (28,262e29,077) tooth Arppe and Karhu, 2010Kraków Spadzista Street (B) 8 Poz-1251 23,770 � 160 28,687 � 409 (28,277e29,096) bone Wojtal and Sobczyk,

2005Zastru _ze 11 Poz-16042 23,790 � 160 28,701 � 408 (28,292e29,109) Wi�sniewski et al.,

2009a, bKraków Spadzista Street (B) 8 Poz-268 24,000 � 300 28,857 � 449 (28,407e29,306) bone Wojtal and Sobczyk,

2005Kraków Spadzista Street,

trench III8 Poz-28735 24,240 � 160 29,004 � 417 (28,586e29,421) bone ISEZ 1.7:6.7 this paper

Kraków Spadzista Street (C) 8 Poz-23644 24,460 � 160 29,230 � 470 (28,760e29,700) bone ISEZ 2.3:12.0 this paperKraków Spadzista Street (C) 8 Poz-23645 24,470 � 150 29,243 � 464 (28,779e29,707) bone ISEZ 2.4:11.2 this paperWachock 12 Poz-31004 24,600 � 170 29,514 � 449 (29,064e29,963) tooth PIG 3.1:8.7 this paperKraków Spadzista Street (F) 8 LuS-7420 24,625 � 180 29,571 � 448 (29,123e30,019) tooth Arppe and

Karhu, 2010Kraków Spadzista Street (E) 8 LuS-7419 24,700 � 180 29,723 � 373 (29,350e30,096) tooth Arppe and

Karhu, 2010Borsuka Cave 13 Poz-26124 24,850 � 200 29,851 � 327 (29,523e30,178) rib ISEZ 1.2:7.5 this paperOtfinów 14 Poz-30233 24,980 � 200 29,938 � 301 (29,636e30,239) tooth ISEZ 2.0:5.9 this paperKraków Spadzista Street (C3) 8 Poz-31038 25,000 � 200 29,953 � 296 (29,656e30,249) tooth ISEZ 2.2:5.8 this paperPrzenosza 15 Poz-30235 25,220 � 200 30,108 � 273 (29,835e30,381) tooth ISEZ 4.1:13.2 this paperDebica 16 Lu-1347 25,300 � 300b e e cranium Kubiak, 1980Sobiecin 17 Poz-31461 25,650 � 190 30,722 � 381 (30,340e31,103) tooth MKOJ 2.4:8.5 this paperKielce 18 Poz-29292 25,910 � 160 30,914 � 351 (30,563e31,265) innominate MNKi 4.7:14.0 this paperMamutowa Cave 19 OxA-14411 26,910 � 130e 31,714 � 143 (31,570e31,857) ivory Wojtal, 2007Trzebownisko 20 Poz-29294 26,940 � 180 31,722 � 161 (31,561e31,883) tooth MNKi 3.2 :11.1 this paperPrzemy�sl 21 Poz-30234 27,440 � 250 32,070 � 237 (31,833e32,307) tooth ISEZ 3.4:9.5 this paperPodgórze 22 Poz-31037 30,500 � 900 34,795 � 861 (33,933e35,656) tooth PIG 1.1:3.5 this paperMamutowa Cave 19 OxA-14434 32,280 � 220e 36,674 � 656 (36,018e37,330) ivory Wojtal, 2007Nietoperzowa Cave, layer 5b 19 Poz-23628 32,500 � 400 37,033 � 811 (36,221e37,844) bone ISEZ 1.5:10.9 this paperKrosinko 23 Poz-23424 32,500 � 400 37,033 � 811 (36,221e37,844) tusk Lorenc and

Paw1owska, 2010Deszczowa Cave,

Upper Rock-shelter24 Poz-24205 32,500 � 700 36,994 � 1043 (35,951e38,037) tooth ISEZ 3.4:12.0 this paper

Mamutowa Cave 19 OxA-14436 33,640 � 250e 39,214 � 1239 (37,975e40,453) ivory Wojtal, 2007Siekluki 25 Poz-28223 35,790 � 550 40,591 � 966 (39,624e41,557) tooth MB 7.2:14.6 this paperSp1awie 26 Poz-34414 35,900 � 700 40,633 � 1043 (39,589e41,676) mandible MRP 1.7:5.4 this paperRzeszów-Zwieczyca 27 Poz-31460 39,000 � 1000 43,240 � 798 (42,442e44,038) tooth MOR 3.1;7.5 this paperSte _zyca 28 Poz-31003 40,000 � 1000 43,820 � 870 (42,949e44,690) tibia PIG 3.5:8.3 this paperSkoki Du _ze 29 Poz-31002 43,000 � 2000 46,866 � 2290 (44,575e49,156) humerus MZKiD 3.2:9.0 this paperSzczecin 30 OxA-11058 44,100 � 1200 47,595 � 1845 (45,749e49,440) vertebra this paperTrzcianka 31 Poz-28224 45,400 � 1700 48,992 � 2414 (46,578e51,406) tooth MB 6.6:20.8 this paper_Zyrardów 32 Poz-31005 47,000 � 2000 50,891 � 3058 (47,833e53,949) innominate PIG 2.9:7.7 this paperJaros1aw-Garbarze 17 Poz-31459 49,000 � 3000 54,600 � 5003 (49,597e59,603) ulna MKOJ 2:O.K. this paperTrze�scianka 33 Poz-28225 51,800 � 4000 date out of range date out of range tooth MB 5.1:13.6 this paper

Region abbreviation: DS - Dolno�slaskie Voivodeship; KP - Kujawsko-Pomorskie Voivodeship; LU - Lubelskie Voivodeship; MA - Mazowieckie Voivodeship; MP - Ma1opolskieVoivodeship; OP - Opolskie Voivodeship; PD - Podlaskie Voivodeship; PK e Podkarpackie Voivodeship; SL - �Slaskie Voivodeship; SW - �Swietokrzyskie Voivodeship; WP - Wiel-kopolskieVoivodeship;ZP -ZachodniopomorskieVoivodeship;geGmina[Communeormunicipality];pePowiat [County].Region:1eOP,G1ubczycep,Kietrzg;2ePK,Rzeszówp,�Swilczag;3e LU, Lublinpg;4e LU, Zamo�s�cpg;5e LU, Zamo�s�cp,Szczebrzeszyng;6eMP,NowyTargpg;7eDS,Wroc1awpg;8eMP,Krakówpg;9ePK, Jas1op,Brzyskag;10e SW,

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Sandomierzpg; 11eDS, �Swidnicap, _Zarówg;12e SW,Starachowicep,Wachockg;13eMP,Krakówp,Zabierzówg;14eMP, Tarnówp, _Zabnog;15eMP, Limanowap,Dobrag;16e PK, Debica pg; 17 e PK, Jaros1aw pg; 18 e SW, Kielce pg; 19 - MP, Kraków p, Jerzmanowice-Przeginia g; 20 e PK, Rzeszów p, Trzebownisko g; 21 e PK, Przemy�sl pg; 22 e SW,Ostrowiec �Swietokrzyski p, �Cmielówg; 23eWP, Pozna�n p,Mosina g; 24e SL, Zawiercie p, Kroczyce g; 25e PD, Bielsk Podlaski p, Bo�cki g; 26eWP,Wrze�snia p, Ko1aczkowo g; 27ePK, Rzeszów pg; 28 e LU, Ryki p, Ste _zyca g; 29e KP, W1oc1awek pg; 30 e ZP, Szczecin pg; 31 e PD, Sokó1ka p, Janów g; 32 eMA, _Zyrardów pg; 33 e PD, Hajnówka p, Narew g.Institutional abbreviation: ISEZ - Institute of Systematics and Evolution of Animals, Polish Academy of Sciences, Kraków, MB - Podlaskie Museum in Bia1ystok, ArcheologyDepartment, MCH - The Museum of the Che1m Land in Che1m, MKOJ - Museum Orsetti House in Jaros1aw, MNKi - National Museum in Kielce, MOR - The Regional Museum inRzeszów,MRJ - TheRegionalMuseumin Jas1o,MRP-TheRegionalMuseuminPyzdry,MZ-TheZamo�s�cMuseum,MZKiD-TheKujawianandDobrzy�nRegionMuseuminW1oc1awek,PIG- Polish Geological Institute, Geological Museum, Warszawa.

a One molar specimen from Dzier _zys1aw was dated at 10,510 � 70 BP (LuS-7422), significantly younger than any other dates from Poland. The reliability of the result isquestioned due to low carbon content in collagen, age may appear too young (Arppe and Karhu, 2010).

b Conventional 14C date.c The agemay be questioned due to low collagen content. The ivory boomerang from layer VIII is the only sample exhibiting a significantly different age from human thumb

phalanx (31,000 � 550 BP), the antler wedge (32,400 � 650 BP) and the bone perforator (30,600 � 550 BP) from the same layer (Housley, 2003).d GPC e the gas proportional counter technique used in 14C dating.e Archaeological artifact.

Fig. 4. Chart of directly radiocarbon dated records for woolly mammoth (M. primigenius) material from Poland (listed in Table 1) shown against of the record of climate changeduring the younger part of Late Pleistocene and Holocene from the GISP2 ice core (Stuiver and Grootes, 2000). MIS 4-MIS 1 e Marine Isotopic Stages from 4 to 1; H6-H1 e Heinrichevents after Hemming (2004); cal. ka BP e time scale in calendric kilo years before present. Note the absence of mammoth dates within MIS 3 (grey arrows) and during MIS 2 (whitearrows). Probable withdrawal of mammoths was connected with amelioration (MIS 3) or deterioration (MIS 2) of the climate.

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of thecomplexpatternsandprocessesof LateQuaternaryextinctions inthe Northern Hemisphere (Stuart and Lister, 2007). Knowledge of theLatePleistocenehistoryofwoollymammoths inPolandwaspreviouslyinsufficient because substantial series of radiocarbon dates madedirectlyonmammothmaterialwasnotpublisheduntil 2000. There arenow directly dated 30 more mammoth remains from across most ofPoland, and the resultswere supplementedbypublisheddates (Fig. 3.).AMS radiocarbon dates were obtained for this study at the Pozna�nRadiocarbon Laboratory or taken from the literature cited (Table 1).These dates have been calibrated using the CalPal program to 1d (68%range) (Weninger et al., 2008), in order to obtain calendar ages(expressed in cal. ka BP) as well as to correlate them with the palae-oclimate records of the Greenland Ice Core Project (GRIP) and theGreenland Ice Sheet Project 2 (GISP2) (Dansgaard et al., 1993; Grootesand Stuiver, 1997).

During the Late Pleistocene the woolly mammoth occurredwidely across Northern Eurasia, including nearly all of Europe(Khalke, 1999; Álvarez-Lao et al., 2009). In the area north of theSudetes and Carpathian mountain ridges the potential range ofmammoths was only limited by the size of the LGM ice sheet thatacted as a barrier to northward expansions. Most of the time spancorresponding with marine isotope stage 3 (MIS 3) falls within therange of radiocarbon (14C) dating, with the exception of its relativelywarm earlier part. MIS 3, known in Poland as Grudziadz Interstadial(Mojski, 2005), is in general characterised by climatic instability (vanAndel and Davis, 2003). It begins around 60 cal. ka BP with therelatively warm phase of fairly mild DangaardeOeschger cycles (DO)lasting from ca. 59 to 44 cal. ka BP and only occasionally interruptedby brief colder, albeit relatively mild, events. The climate started todeteriorate between 42 and 37 cal. ka BP culminating in theextremely cold Heinrich 4 event (H4), an episode of massive icebergrelease into the North Atlantic (Rahmsdorf, 2002) and described byvan Andel et al. (2003) as a transitional phase. MIS 3 subsequentlycontinues with a period characterized by stronger and brief climaticoscillations and ends close to another cold and dry period, the H3event around 27 cal. ka BP. Although data are still limited at present,there is enough evidence confirming thatM. primigeniuswas almostcontinuously distributed in all parts of Poland in MIS 3 (GrudziadzInterstadial) from ca. 54 cal. ka BP to ca. 27.5 cal. ka BP. However, anabsence of dates of about 2.5 millennia is recorded between43,240 � 800 cal. BP (39,000 � 1000 BP) and 40,630 � 1040 cal. BP(35,900 � 700 BP) and between ca. 34,800 � 860 cal. BP(30,500 � 900 BP) and 32,070 cal. BP (27,440 � 250 BP) (Fig. 4.)corresponding to an amelioration of the climate between the H5 andH4 as well as between the H4 and H3 events, with the possibledevelopment of forests, not suitable for mammoths. Among the MIS3 records of M. primigenius, the site of Kraków Spadzista Street (B),representing the period just after the cold H3 event, has producedthe largest amount of identified specimens as well as individuals(Table 1). In general the evidence fits to the known colonizationpattern of M. primigemius in Central Europe during MIS 3 (e.g.Sommer and Benecke, 2009).

Shortly after ca. 28 cal. ka BP (ca. 23 ka BP) mammoths probablydisappeared from some regions of Poland or at least the number ofanimals was reduced because of the appearance of extremeclimatic conditions. Only two tusks have been dated from the onsetof the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) fromWróblowa-Ujazd (Fig. 5):ca. 24,260 � 300 cal. BP (20,320 � 120 BP) and Kraków SpadzistaStreet (C2): ca. 24,100 � 470 cal. BP (20,200 � 350 BP) (Gowlettet al., 1986). A third conventional date on a bone from KrakówSpadzista Street (B) (20,600 � 1050 BP) is not confirmed by AMSdating.

In addition there is the next youngest mammoth find, a tuskfrom Wroc1aw-Oporów, which was dated to 18,700 � 270 BP(Bluszcz and Pazdur, 2003) and the ivory boomerang from

Ob1azowa Cave at 18,160 � 260 BP (ca. 21,840 � 420 cal. BP)(Housley, 2003). Both dates are perhaps not reliable due to thedating method used or low collagen content (Table 1). Although thedata are still limited at present, there is strong evidence that woollymammoths disappeared entirely and rather suddenly from thewhole area between the southern margin of the LGM ice sheet tothe north and the Sudetes and Carpathians to the south, from ca.24 cal. ka BP (ca. 20 ka BP) to ca. 18 cal. ka BP (ca. 14.6 ka BP). Thisstatement is in agreement with an earlier observation of Stuartet al. (2004) for Western Europe.

The current dates obtained for mammoths from south and eastPoland indicate that there was a re-expansion of M. primigeniusrange for about 2e3 millennia between ca. 18.0 cal. ka BP (ca.14.6 ka BP) and 15.0 cal. ka BP (12.6 ka BP) (Fig. 4). This re-immigrationwas limited at first to the area of south-eastern Poland,especially the Lublin Upland, represented by three dates fromKaweczyn ca. 17,930 � 380 cal. BP (14,620 � 80 BP) (Fig. 6), Zamo�s�cca.17,650� 240 cal. BP (14,510� 70BP) and Lublin-Kalinowszczyznaca. 17,380 � 240 cal. BP (14,140 � 70 BP) as well as perhaps Bziankanear Rzeszów in the foothills of the Carpathians. However, thereliability of the last date can be questioned due to themethods used

Fig. 5. Awoolly mammoth (M. primigenius) tusk fromWróblowa-Ujazd, AMS 14C datedto 24,260 � 300 cal. years BP (20,320 � 120 years BP). The Regional Museum in Jas1o.

Fig. 6. A woolly mammoth (M. primigenius) tooth fragment from Kaweczyn, AMS 14Cdated to 17,930 � 380 cal. years BP (14,620 � 80 years BP). The Zamo�s�c Museum.

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(a conventional 14C date). Another centre of mammoth distribution,possibly not linked with that in the Lublin Upland, was situated inthe easternmost part of Sudetes foothills and Odra river valley nearRacibórz.

The latest records for Poland are those from the Magdalenianopen-air site Dzier _zys1aw 35 (Ginter et al., 2002, 2005; Wojtal,2007) situated close to the Moravian Gate, in Odra Valley, a widedepression between the Sudetes and Carpathian Mountains. Sixradiocarbon dates determined from bone and dentine samplesrange from ca. 17,390 � 240 cal. BP (14,150 � 70 BP) to ca.14,930 � 300 cal. BP (12,585 � 70 BP) (Table 1).

This re-immigration into southern Poland, after an absence ofabout 5e6 millennia, can be plausibly linked to the renewed coldand open vegetational conditions of the end of the Pleniglacial,before the important warming of the Lateglacial Interglacial(Bølling e Allerød). The final extinction of mammoth in Polandseems to have occurred in southern rather than northern Poland,just before the Lateglacial Interglacial (ca. 15,000 cal. BP or ca.12,600 BP). This event correlates with the rapid spread of borealforest and the loss of the steppe-tundra biome in both areasoccupied by the last mammoths, as seen in pollen diagrams fromObary in the Sandomierz Lowland (Mamakowa, 1962), qukcze(Ba1aga,1982,1990) and Krowie Bagno (Ba1aga et al., 1983) in LublinPolesie, north of the Lublin Upland and Drogomy�sl (Niedzia1kowskaet al., 1985) in the Upper Vistula valley.

3. Conclusion

Remains of M. primigenius have been reported regularly fromMIS 3 to the onset of MIS 2 in the area north of the Sudetes andCarpathians mountain chains with two possible gaps, between theH5 and H4 as well as the H4 and H3 cold events, because of forestexpansions in milder climate phases. However, at the beginning ofMIS 2 the number of mammoths appears to have been reduced dueto severe climatic condition, even before the H2 cold event(between ca. 27.5 cal. ka BP and 24.3 cal. ka BP). Around 24 cal. ka BPMammuthus probably disappeared from Poland for the next 5e6millennia (to ca. 18 cal. ka BP). The last re-immigration lasting ca.2e3millennia took place between ca. 18.0 cal. ka BP and 15.0 cal. kaBP. Finally, climatic and environmental changes resulted in thefragmentation and contraction of the mammoth range and inconsequence to its final extinction in Poland ca. 15.0 cal. ka BP (ca.12.5 ka BP).

Acknowledgments

Research on mammoth extinction in Poland was supported bythe grants of Ministry of Sciences and Higher Education of PolandNo. 303 078 32/2589 and No. 2 P04C 081 30. We are grateful tomany institutions (listed in the footnote of Table 1) that havecontributed samples of mammoths for 14C dating. Special thanks goto Tomasz Goslar and his staff, Pozna�n Radiocarbon Laboratory, forproviding most of radiocarbon dates presented in this work. Wealso gratefully acknowledge Anthony J. Stuart andWilliam Davis forradiocarbon dates on some Polish mammoth remains. We aregrateful to John Stewart, Hervé Bocherens, and an anonymousreviewer for their valuable critical remarks, insightful commentsand suggestions.

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