Abstract:

In 2022, new excavations were conducted at the Gravettian site of Dolní Věstonice (DV) I, famous for its large accumulation of mammoth bones. The site is situated on a gentle, loess-covered slope below a limestone cuesta. Preliminary results on the geomorphological setting and the sedimentary record indicate that the slope profile was shaped by several large mass movements and that the mammoth bone accumulation is located in a depression formed by these landslides. Post-occupationally, the more differentiated paleo-landscape was smoothened by a subsequently deposited loess cover. The mammoth bone deposit was affected by short-distance slope transport, weathering, and pedogenesis before burial. The resulting loess sequence illustrates periods of landscape instability, indicated by undulations, cryoturbation, and displacements, and periods of landscape stability, indicated by weak soil horizons and ice-wedge pseudomorphs. Landscape instability can occur during more humid periods, resulting in smaller mass movements, such as solifluction. In contrast, landscape stability occurs during cold, arid periods with more continental conditions, as evidenced by the ice wedge pseudomorphs. These field observations are supported by high-resolution (2 cm) laboratory analysis on grain size distribution, colour variations, geochemical composition and OSL dating applied to decode the loess-paleosol sequence (LPS). Three partially overlapping profiles (DV I-1, DV I-2, DV I-3) of the archaeological site were integrated into a single composite depth sequence by determining a linear depth offset that minimizes multi-proxy dissimilarity within zones of overlap, with all proxy signals normalized to a pooled robust z-score prior to alignment. This composite can then be compared to DVI-4, a reference profile from the same site but located outside any visible landslide influence, and to the nearby site DV II (Antoine et al., 2013). The sections of both sites show a stratigraphic discontinuity around the Gravettian occupation and the onset of more continuous loess sedimentation towards the end of MIS 3. However, DV I preserves a more articulated record during the Upper Pleniglacial, with more pronounced pedogenic horizons and better-expressed periglacial features such as cryoturbation structures and ice-wedge pseudomorphs.