Mezhyrich Mammoth-Bone Dwellings

Mezhyrich is an Upper Palaeolithic site near the village of the same name in central Ukraine, southeast of Kyiv. It is the best-known of several sites in the region where people built shelters using mammoth bone. A farmer found the first bone, a lower jaw, in 1965 while enlarging his cellar, and excavations followed. Four dwellings are recorded.

Dating

Earlier radiocarbon dates spread between roughly 19,000 and 12,000 years ago, and the site has often been given as about 15,000 years old. A study published in November 2025 dated remains of about a dozen small animals found around the dwellings, placing the largest structure at about 18,323 to 17,839 years ago, just after the Last Glacial Maximum, with a possible span of use of up to 429 years. François Djindjian, who was not involved, cautioned that more dates from across the site are needed.

How the shelters were built

• Base: mammoth skulls and large long bones set upright in the ground formed a low plinth or foundation.
• Frame: a wooden framework may have covered parts of the shelter.
• Covering: most likely hides of smaller animals, or possibly birch bark.
• Roof weights: tusks and large flat bones were placed on top, holding the cover down and protecting it from wind.
• Size: the base of the best-known reconstruction is about 3.7-4.3 m (12-14 ft) across.

The 2025 study suggested each shelter housed five to seven people, who knapped flint, processed skins and butchered small animals inside. The authors concluded the shelters were practical survival structures rather than permanent settlements.

Related sites

Mezhyrich is often discussed alongside other mammoth-bone sites such as Mezin, Gontsy and Dobranichevka, which I. H. Pidoplichko surveyed together in a book published in 1998. Other finds at Mezhyrich include a bone engraved with what may be a map and a mammoth skull painted with red ochre that has been interpreted as a drum.

Significance for roofing history

On a treeless Ice Age steppe, bone replaced timber for the heavy parts of a shelter. The arrangement of a heavy, durable base with a light flexible cover held down by weights is a pattern seen in many later roofs, from turf weighted with stones to thatch pinned with ropes.