A farmer was digging a hole when he suddenly noticed something unexpected in the ground. When he realized what it was, he froze in terror.

A farmer rented a powerful excavator to dig a trench on his land and run a gas line to his house. But at about five feet deep, the bucket suddenly stopped. Afraid of damaging the expensive machine, the farmer shut off the engine and climbed down into the trench with a shovel.

At first, he thought he had hit a rock. But the deeper he dug, the stranger the object seemed. The farmer was stunned. His gaze suddenly fixed on something…

The farmer, who lived in a remote northern area, had long dreamed of lowering his electricity bills. He decided to install his own gas pipeline to the house.

It was tough work, especially alone. So he rented a high-powered excavator with a hydraulic bucket.

Since the machine wasn’t his, he decided to practice first on a soft, uncultivated patch of land. The soil there was loose, with no roots or rocks.

But at about five feet deep, the bucket suddenly hit something solid.

Worried about damaging the tool, he immediately turned off the engine. Something was buried — something the machine couldn’t break through.

He grabbed a shovel and flashlight and climbed down. At first, he assumed it was just a boulder, which wouldn’t be unusual in that glacial region.

But as he kept digging, the object seemed increasingly strange. It was hard and smooth, almost like it had been polished.

After two hours of digging by hand, the farmer uncovered something breathtaking: a large, curved bone that resembled a tusk or horn.

Next to it — another one, symmetrically placed. Looking closer, he could make out the outline of a skull: a tall forehead, a long, curved jaw, and empty eye sockets.

He called over two neighbors, and together they eagerly kept digging. With each passing minute, it became clearer: this wasn’t a cow or a deer. This was… something ancient.

The next morning, the farmer called a university in the regional capital. The day after, a paleontology professor arrived with his students.

The professor was thrilled: according to him, the remains belonged to a woolly mammoth over 20,000 years old.

The tusks, skull, and several ribs were exceptionally well preserved — suggesting the mammoth had died and been buried quickly, likely in a landslide or flood.

But the professor’s excitement was clouded by an unexpected twist. When he said the bones must immediately be taken to a museum, the farmer firmly refused.