Krems-Hundssteig. Mammutjager Der Eiszeit

In the course of mining for loess, around 1900 large numbers of Palaeolithic artefacts were found at the so-called Hundssteig in Krems. These were evaluated as being 35,000-year-old Aurignacian relics. A century later, a large-scale construction project threatened to destroy the intact Palaeolithic layers just south of the former loess mining area. For this reason, the Prehistoric Commission of the Austrian Academy of Sciences carried out excavations from 2000 to 2002 of a 250-square-metre area. The project was supported by the Austrian Science Fund with financial participation of the construction firm Gedesag (Gemeinnutzige Donau-Ennstaler Siedlungs AG). The original dating had to be revised, there being evidence of repeated settlement of the area between the watercourses of the Danube and the Krems rivers beginning 33,000 years ago, but possibly as long ago as 41,000 years. The main layers of findings provided evidence for an early Gravettian settlement that is 29,000 to 27,000 years old. The area offered resources throughout the year to the Ice Age hunter-gatherers. The finds were very well preserved because of rapid Aeolian loess sedimentation. Even evidence of calcified wood was found, including parts of trunks, branches and roots, but also pieces that were possibly worked by humans.