History
Were mammoths still alive when the pyramids were built?
Woolly mammoths were still alive when the Great Pyramid was built. The last population, on Wrangel Island, died out about 4,000 years ago, some 500 years after the pyramid was finished.
Source: Dehasque et al. (2024), Cell.
Context
Yes. The Great Pyramid was built around 2560 BC. A small population of woolly mammoths survived on Wrangel Island, off Siberia, until about 4,000 years ago, roughly 500 years after the pyramid was finished.
The Wrangel mammoths were cut off when sea levels rose, and a 2024 genome study by Dehasque and colleagues traced the population through its last millennia. Mainland mammoths had died out long before.
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