Russian archaeologists are resuming excavation work at the Bogatyr-Sinnaya Balka archaeological site on the coast of the Taman Peninsula opposite Crimea and on the shore of the Sea of Azov, which is experiencing landslides.
Archaeologists there found parts of six Taman elephant skulls, as well as stone tools dating back to ancient humans.
According to the Institute for the History of Material Culture of the Russian Academy of Sciences, some of these discoveries are between 1.2 and 1.4 million years old.
Researchers believe that the mud volcano site was once a swampy lake where elephants and rhinoceroses would wallow in the mud, while Homo ergaster (the working human) took advantage of these conditions to butcher the animals' carcasses. Within a limited area, scientists discovered the remains of approximately 100 elephants and 40 rhinoceroses of the species Elasmotherium.
During the current excavation season, fragments of six elephant skulls were unearthed, a rare find given the fragility of proboscis skulls and the difficulty in preserving them. The discovered pieces will be transferred to the Azov Sea Nature Reserve Museum.
Experts said that the archaeological site is still flooded with seawater, so archaeologists are forced to conduct excavations within the framework of rescue operations to preserve the discoveries before they are damaged.
The Bogatyr-Sinya Balka site is a unique monument dating back to the early Paleolithic period, and it represents a fossil site of global importance, located on the northern coast of the Sea of Azov in the Taman Peninsula.
The site is located on the head of "Bogatyre" near the village of "Za Rodino" in the Temryuk district of Russia's Krasnodar region, and is threatened by landslides and gradual erosion due to waves.
The archaeological site was discovered in 2002 when archaeologists unearthed stone tools dating back to the Early Paleolithic period. After a three-year hiatus, active excavations resumed in July 2026 as part of a "rescue excavation" project due to continued coastal erosion.
