In modern-day Italy, the closest you will get to an elephant is in a zoo. But 400,000 years ago, a large species of straight-tusked elephants roamed Europe — and an unlucky few ended up on the dinner plates of early humans.
Archeologists writing in PLOS One recently unearthed the remains of an elephant carcass at an ancient hominin site in Rome, along with evidence that its bones were repurposed to make tools.
"Our study shows how, 400,000 years ago in the area of Rome, human groups were able to exploit an extraordinary resource like the elephant — not only for food, but also by transforming its bones into tools,” the authors explained in a statement.
Read More: What Types of Tools Did Neanderthals Use and Develop?
An Elephant Bone Treasure Trove
Archaeological and paleontological deposit of Casal Lumbroso (a) and the drawing of the large mammal bones exposed in the main surface (b).
(Image Credit Mecozzi et al., 2025, PLOS One, CC-BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/))
The archaeological treasure trove of Casal Lumbroso in northwest Rome was discovered by chance. An excavator stumbled across an unlikely elephant tusk during the development of a new building complex in 2017.
Since then, a team of archeologists led by Beniamino Mecozzi at the Sapienza University of Rome has uncovered over 300 skeletal remains belonging to an ancient species of elephant, Palaeoloxodon antiquus, as well as the sporadic remains of species that include a two-horned rhinoceros (Stephanorhinus), red deer (Cervus elaphus), wolf, and turtle.
Researchers discovered the bones alongside a limestone handaxe and a collection of over 500 stone tools, most of which were no more than 3 centimeters in length and made of flint. Researchers say these tools are evidence of butchery and would have been used to remove meat from the bone.
But that’s not all. Small fractures on sixteen of the elephant bones — 15 percent of the elephant’s remains — suggest that the animal’s carcass was not merely used for meat. The presence of impact marks implies the fractures were made after the animal’s death from blunt force, which the researchers say could have been intentionally produced to transform the elephant’s bones into tools. At approximately 10 to 36 centimeters (4 to 14 inches), these tools were much larger than the flint tools surrounding them and may have been a precious resource when large stones were in short supply.
Evidence of Elephant Butchery Across Europe
Casal Lumbroso is not the only European site with evidence of elephant butchery. There are almost 20 known locations across Europe, ranging from Germany and England in the north to Spain and Greece in the south. At the nearby site La Polledrara di Cecanibbio, northwest of Rome, archeologists have discovered the remains of at least three elephants, whose carcasses were exploited by hominins after becoming trapped in muddy sediments.
Mecozzi and his team believe a similar fate may have met the Palaeoloxodon at Casal Lumbroso, who died aged 45 to 49 years old, most likely of natural causes — although the researchers “cannot exclude the possibility that it was deliberately driven by humans to a natural mud trap.”
Who Were These Mystery Hominins?
Using ash deposits, the team was able to date the site to a period approximately 404,000 years ago, during the Middle Pleistocene, when the region would have been characterized by humid woodland.
It is unclear from the study which group of hominins was responsible for the elephant butchery. There is evidence of Neanderthals in Europe as early as 430,000 years ago, but other early human species, including Homo heidelbergensis, were also living on the continent at that time.
While the authors credit pre-Neanderthal populations, Gerret Dusseldorp, an Associate Professor of Stone Age Archaeology at Leiden University, who did not participate in the research, believes early Neanderthals were the most likely culprits.
Though much around the site remains a mystery, the researchers say, "Reconstructing these events means bringing to life ancient and vanished scenarios, revealing a world where humans, animals, and ecosystems interacted in ways that still surprise and fascinate us today.”
Read More: Neanderthal Workshop Full of Animal Remains and Butchering Tools Unearthed
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