A team of German archaeologists from Gutenberg University and the Leibniz Center for Archaeology, alongside Dutch colleagues, uncovered compelling evidence of widespread hunting of straight-tusked forest elephants (Palaeoloxodon antiquus) by Neanderthals about 125,000 years ago. The discoveries come from sites in Saxony-Anhalt and Thuringia in Germany and are reported in the scientific journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).
Straight-tusked elephants occupied Europe and western Asia during the Middle and Late Pleistocene, ranging from roughly 781,000 to 30,000 years ago. These giants stood up to four meters tall and could weigh as much as 13 tons, ranking them as the largest terrestrial mammals of their era, even larger than mammoths in many respects.
Researchers identified marks on elephant bones that align with Neanderthal stone-tool activity. The patterns suggest that these animals were actively hunted and killed, not merely scavenged. The study’s findings indicate that elephant hunting was a recurring practice rather than a rare event, signaling a stable engagement with this valuable resource among Neanderthal groups. The lead author, Professor Sabine Gaudzinski-Windhäuser, emphasizes that the bone evidence points to a sustained pattern of interaction with these enormous prey rather than a one-time event.
Estimations by the team suggest that a single adult straight-tusked elephant could supply enough meat for at least 2,500 adults for a full day, underscoring the strategic value these animals held for Neanderthal communities. This level of provisioning implies coordinated efforts and sophisticated social organization among Neanderthals, particularly when targeting such a formidable and prized quarry.
Archaeologists highlight that hunting these large and valuable creatures would require group cooperation and careful planning. The scale of effort needed to bring down and process such prey points to social structures capable of sustaining collaborative hunts, shared meat distribution, and knowledge transfer about hunting techniques and tool use within Neanderthal groups.
Historically, researchers have also noted that Neanderthals interacted with Eurasia’s formidable megafauna, including cave lions, which are frequently cited as trophies of their hunting prowess. The evolving record from multiple sites continues to illuminate the breadth of Neanderthal subsistence strategies and their adaptability in diverse environments during the late Paleolithic period.