Overview
- Archaeologists identified a roughly 12,000-year-old male reindeer antler from the destroyed Zwergenloch cave near Elbingerode, the oldest such find in the Harz.
- The antler and associated pieces came from a box of materials excavated in 1936 by archaeologist Paul Grimm and only now reanalyzed.
- Two small reindeer long-bone fragments bear clear percussion marks that indicate deliberate breakage to access energy-rich marrow.
- Researchers interpret the evidence as consistent with specialized reindeer-hunting groups known from the Ahrensburger cultural horizon around 12,800–11,600 years before present.
- With in-situ context lost at Zwergenloch, the state archaeology office plans further studies of collections and sites across the Harz in the coming years.