Durham's Department of Archaeology returns to the village of Climăuţi de Jos in northern Moldova for our second season excavating a 25,000-year old Upper Palaeolithic campsite. Our Professor Paul Pettitt leads this project in collaboration with Dr Vitalie Burlacu (Moldova’s Cultural-Natural reserve at Orheiul Vecchi) and Dr Laure Fontana (National Centre for Scientific Research, Paris Nanterre, France).
Featured image above shows students excavating a mammoth carcass.
The uniquely rich campsite lies on the banks of the Dniestr River, where mammoths died in some number. Homo sapiens hunter-gatherers exploited these mammoths, bison, horse and reindeer in this cold, arid, and largely treeless steppe during the later part of the Ice Age.
Mammoth and bison large bones emerging
The international project team includes several Durham University Archaeology students and alumni:
They join a five-strong French team and Moldovan colleagues Andrei Corobcean and Stefan Chelban, for this month-long field project aimed at understanding the palaeoecology of the region and its importance to our Palaeolithic ancestors.
Sedimentology sampling
UG student Hal Meller-Higton and PGR student Dale Daykin
This year’s excavations focus on two areas.
The first (Trench Four) is a site where mammoths died and were butchered. We have recovered the lumbar and thoracic areas (i.e. the rear) of a mammoth lying on its right side, alongside scatters of flint flakes and large cores where people had knapped blades for use on the site.
Mammoth thoracic vertebrae and ribs with stone tools
The second area (Sector Two) is a living area, where a winter dwelling structure with a foundation ring of mammoth bones is slowly emerging. Activity areas outside of this represent the butchery of bison, horse, reindeer and wolf. There is evidence of a large amount of flint knapping and activities represented by certain tools, such as flint ‘endscrapers’ (used to prepare hides for use as clothing, tents, etc.) and flint ‘burins’ used to work reindeer antler and mammoth ivory (tusk).
Two blade cores from flint knapping amongst other finds
We are recovering a notable amount of personal ornamentation (jewellery) – over a dozen pendants made from fossil mollusc shells, a dozen or so tubular beads made from bones of small animals (e.g. fox) and engraved with decorative lines, beads carved from mammoth tusk, and an engraved reindeer tooth. This shows that people were regularly losing these items from where they were sewn onto their clothing or worn elsewhere on their bodies. These ornaments were probably lost among the carcass parts and general waste that accumulated at the messy campsite!
We have a number of research questions, but it is emerging that at the time that humans were camping in the Middle Dniestr river valley 25,000 years ago, the area was a cold, arid microhabitat rich in mixed herds of mammoth and bison which were probably not that nomadic.
It seems that these resources – supplemented seasonally by migratory reindeer and horse – were enough to allow a degree of sedentism. The otherwise mobile hunter-gatherers were able to sit on the spot for many months of the year, and invest in considerable effort constructing mammoth bone tents capable of providing warmth and protection from the harshest parts of the Ice Age winters.
Sector Two, with Paul Pettitt and Deputy Ambassador Samantha Smith standing on the side
Last week (23rd July) we received a visit from Samantha Smith, the British Deputy Ambassador to Moldova. She was accompanied by the Embassy’s Communications and Media Assistant, Maria Cojocaru, who was documenting the visit for the Embassy’s social media channels and filming a ‘day in the life' of our Department's Prof Paul Pettitt.
Prof Paul Pettitt showing finds to Deputy Ambassador Samantha Smith
Our Department of Archaeology is proud to be one of the small number of UK institutions engaged in activities in Moldova, and to work with the Embassy furthering relations between the two countries.
Our Department of Archaeology is a leading centre for the study of archaeology and is ranked 6th in the world (QS World University Rankings by Subject 2025). We are an inclusive, vibrant and international community. Our students develop knowledge and gain essential and transferable skills through research-led teaching and lab-based training.
Durham University is a World Top 100 University (QS World University Rankings 2026), a position it has achieved every year since 2010. We have a strong global reputation for employability (64th), sustainability (22nd) and a much-strengthened academic reputation (up nine places from 2025 rankings). We are also a UK top 5 University (Times and Sunday Times 2025, Complete University Guide 2026).
