From the coal machines in Bílina, artists in Brno will create a statue of a mammoth, which will stand in Ústí

Ústí nad Labem – Two freight cars carrying metal material from former excavators and other coal machinery have departed from the Bílina Mines. Ten tons of iron are headed to Brno, where artists will create a sculpture of a mammoth. The artwork will return to Ústí nad Labem at the beginning of next year, where archaeologists found remains of these prehistoric animals. The statue will stand in front of the regional office. This was reported by the spokesperson of Severočeské doly, Lukáš Kopecký.

The Ústí Region wants to symbolically link the industrial history of the area with the unique archaeological find of mammoth remains in the Ústí neighborhood of Bukov. The Paleolithic site discovered in 2024 at the location where the judicial palace is currently being built has become one of the most significant in Central Europe. Archaeologists found remains of at least 19 woolly mammoths and other animals and tools from the Early Stone Age.

The material was donated to the region by Severočeské doly. Artists selected the most suitable pieces from the depot of iron material for the sculpture. Among the largest pieces are two buckets from the most powerful overburden excavator K 10.000 or two undercarriages from the dumping car. "We provided the metal waste to the Ústí Region as a donation. It is also appealing for us that the remains of our mining technology will continue to live in the form of an artistic piece," said Kopecký.

The sculpture will be created by artists from the REC Group, which is behind the Kovozoo project in Uherské Hradiště. It is known for creating life-size animals and other objects from recycled metal waste. In the future, the statue could be moved to an exhibition that the region plans to prepare. The spokesperson for the Ústí Region, Magdalena Fraňková, stated that the region is considering organizing a poll on what the mammoth should be named.

In addition to the skeletal remains of mammoths, archaeologists found bones of woolly rhinoceroses, reindeer, horses, as well as stone tools and a hearth. Archaeologists are gradually processing the collected data. There are plans for an interactive 3D guide that would allow visitors to search for and identify individual finds according to thematic layers. There is consideration being given to creating a 3D virtual reality of the Bukov landscape during the Ice Age, which would illustrate the nature of that time and the way of life of ancestors. Historians from Ústí are interested in presenting the find in the judicial palace itself.