The remains of what is believed to be an ancient mammoth, as well as Nazi-era relics have been revealed along the Danube River as water levels have fallen in recent weeks following the summer's prolonged heatwaves and drought.
Near the Serbian port of Prahovo, the Danube’s receding water levels have revealed dozens of German battleships sunken during World War II.
At least 20 warships can be seen emerging from the Danube, according to CBS News, adding that they are believed to have belonged to Nazi Germany’s Black Sea fleet, sunken by the German’s during their retreat from Romania near the end of the war.
Several of the warships had been removed from the river in the years after the war, but many had been left underwater, according to BTA, some of which still contain mines, shells and other unexploded ordnances.
CBS noted that other warships have previously emerged from the Danube during times of extreme heat.
In 2022 and 2024, several sunken Nazi warships emerged from the Danube following hot summers and droughts that have had the river’s water levels dropping low.
Krsta Brandic, a Prahovo resident, told the Associated Press that the low water levels have almost stopped ship traffic, and “as you can see, the [big] ships can’t pass anymore.”
Near Opatovac, Croatia,receding water levels have also begun to reveal a shows the wreckage of the Hungarian cargo ship Fulton which sunk in the Danube in 1937 while transporting coal.
Remains of two Nazi soldiers found in Budapest
Additionally, the German War Graves Commission (Volksbund) announced on Wednesday that the remains of two Nazi soldiers had been found along the banks of the now-receded Danube in Budapest alongside a World War II motorcycle.
The dog tags of both soldiers are complete, Volksbund noted, explaining that this likely meant the two soldiers had been declared missing as no offical notice of their deaths had been recorded at the time.
The two are expected to be buried in the Budaörs German Soldiers Cemetery outside of Budapest.
The motorcycle, believed to be a DKW NZ 350-1, was discovered near Batthyány Square.
Several German Tellermine 35 anti-tank mines were also found, Volksbund said in its statement, as well as a Kuban Shield, a Nazi military decoration awarded to Wehrmacht forces who fought at the Kuban bridgehead in 1943.
Volksbund further stated that should any of the sunken warships now being revealed in the Danube be found to hold the remains of any more German soldiers, it will be notified by the authorities.
Ice Age mammoth remains unearthed as Danube levels recede
Last week, the Bulgarian News Agency (BTA) reported that the remains of the ancient mammoth (Mammuthus primigenius) were found in northern Bulgaria, after Danube River water levels receded to a record low level.
The animal's remains were found by a local resident of the Ryahovo village, who noticed the unusual find on the river bed. Villagers then alerted specialists in the Regional History Museum in the nearby town of Ruse.
Ryahovo Mayor Hristina Ivanova shared with BTA that the area was particularly interesting from a historical perspective, and that over the years, “various finds have been discovered here, including animal remains, vessels and other objects.”
“The news spread very quickly,” she explained to BTA, referencing the mammoth bones. “At first, we did not want to raise unnecessary expectations before we were certain about what exactly had been found.”
“After the specialists carried out their initial inspection, the information quickly reached the media. Now the entire village knows about it, and, in this case, so does all of Bulgaria.”.
Regional History Museum Director Nikolay Nenov told BTA that experts who were sent to the site recognized a lower jaw, two tusks and possibly a mammoth rib, and that the bones will be removed for further examination to establish with accuracy the origin and age of the find.
"I would not call it a sensation, but any discovery of such ancient remains is very important for science," Nenov said, adding it has been long believed that the site was a swamp where the animal probably died thousands of years ago.
Krasimir Kirov, who serves as a curator in the Nature Department of the Regional History Museum, explained to BTA that the bones may not have originated where they were found, but could have been carried there by the Danube.
“The area near Ryahovo probably represents a kind of deposit where the flow of the Danube carried and accumulated the remains of various animals, not only mammoths,” Kirov said. “The characteristics of the terrain probably led to their accumulation here, creating sort of a ‘storage bank’.”
Kirov told BTA that per preliminary assessments, the mammoth had stood at nearly five meters tall and weighed more than seven tonnes, a size similar to the mammoth model on display at the Ruse museum.
“Dating the animal is difficult, but the species we believe this to be existed until around 7,000 to 10,000 years ago and appeared approximately 500,000 to 800,000 years ago,” he added. “It was a widespread species that lived in a climate radically different from today's, significantly colder.”
According to Kirov, the mammoth’s bones are not in good condition due to their extended exposure to oxygen after being in the water for so long.
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