The mammoth site of Niederweningen, Switzerland

In 1890 more than 100 bones, molar teeth and tusks of at least seven different individuals of mammoths, including a very young calf, were found in a peat horizon at the base of a gravel pit at the village of Niederweningen, 20 km northwest of Zürich. Further fragmentary fossils have been identified as remains of woolly rhino, wild horse, bison, wolf, lemming, vole, frog and bird. In 2003 and 2004 new fossils and good sections of the peat horizon were studied in large construction pits located close to the old Niederweningen mammoth site. The highlight was a well-preserved articulated mammoth skeleton with an estimated height of about 3.50 m. New 14C-AMS dating confirm that bones and teeth of mammoth, peat and wood found in association with mammoth, have an age of about 45 ka BP. Luminescence dating of one section provides time control with ages of 70-80 ka for the sediments below the peat and 40 ka above the peat. First studies on pollen, seeds, wood and beetle allow the reconstruction of environment and climate during this time interval in the middle part of the last glacial cycle (Middle Würmian).