The Elephant in the Room: The Use of Mammoth Bones for the Manufacture of Objects in the Upper Paleolithic of Southwestern France

During the Upper Paleolithic of southwestern France, the working of mammoth ivory is widely documented, but the use of mammoth bone has not been identified except for one possible Gravettian case. Here we report six worked objects made of mammoth bone from five sites in southwestern France, which have been identified taxonomically by proteomics using ZooMS. They were radiocarbon dated and their chronological distribution spans the Upper Paleolithic: Aurignacian (Sous-le-Roc, 35.5–34.6 ka cal BP), Gravettian (Brassempouy, 28.6–27.6 ka cal BP), Solutrean (Laugerie-Haute and Harpons, 26.3–23.4 and 24.2–23.7 ka cal BP), and Magdalenian (La Madeleine, 15.9–15.5 ka cal BP). Additionally, the technical use of unworked flakes from mammoth bones was identified at another site (Isturitz) and dated to the Gravettian (33.8–31.9 ka cal BP). We argue that in the Upper Paleolithic of southwestern Europe, the use of mammoth bone, while infrequent, is more common than previously documented, and identification biases account for its under-recognition. More systematic research is necessary to assess the extent of this phenomenon. This contribution highlights the research potential in collections from ancient excavations, provided that they are approached with a combination of complementary analytical methods.