Archaeologists from MONREPOS, the Johannes Gutenberg University of Mainz and Leiden University have recently learned that around 125,000 years ago, hunting of straight-tusked elephants (Palaeoloxodon antiquus), the largest land mammals of the Pleistocene, was part of the Neanderthal behavioral repertoire, for several dozens of generations. This knowledge is based on data from one lake-side location in northern Europe only. In their new paper, the researchers present data from two other, contemporaneous sites on the North European plain, demonstrating that elephant exploitation was a widespread phenomenon there. The sheer quantities of food generated by the butchering activities, aimed at extensive exploitation of the carcasses, suggest that Neanderthals had some form of food preservation and/or at least temporarily operated in larger groups than commonly acknowledged.

“Neanderthals hunted and butchered straight-tusked elephants, the largest land mammals of the Pleistocene, in a lake landscape on the North European plain, 125,000 years ago,” said first author Professor Sabine Gaudzinski-Windheuser and her colleagues.

“With evidence for a remarkable focus on adult males and on their extended utilization, the data from this location are thus far without parallel in the archaeological record.”

“Given their relevance for our knowledge of the Neanderthal niche, we investigated whether the Neumark-Nord subsistence practices were more than a local phenomenon, possibly determined by local characteristics.”

In the new research, the scientists analyzed the remains of straight-tusked elephants from two other archaeological sites on the North European plain, Gröbern and Taubach.

They identified in both assemblages similar butchering patterns as at the Neumark-Nord site.

“The results of the examination of the bones from Gröbern and Taubach now show that the hunting of these elephants by Neanderthals was not an isolated phenomenon but must have been a more regular activity,” Professor Gaudzinski-Windheuser said.

Reconstruction of the Schöningen lakeshore as the humans discovered the carcass of the straight-tusked elephant. Image credit: Benoit Clarys.

Straight-tusked elephants were the largest land mammals of the Pleistocene epoch, present in Europe and western Asia between 800,000 and 100,000 years ago.

These animals had a very wide head and extremely long tusks, and were roughly three times larger than that of living Asian elephants, twice that of African ones, and also much larger than woolly mammoths.

Estimates of maximum shoulder height vary from 3 to 4.2 m (10-14 feet) and body mass from 4.5 to 13 tons for females and males, respectively.

“We have estimated that the meat and fat supplied by the body of an adult Palaeoloxodon antiquus bull would have been sufficient to satisfy the daily calorie intake of at least 2,500 adult Neanderthals,” Professor Gaudzinski-Windheuser said.

“This is a significant number because it furnishes us with new insights into the behavior of Neanderthals.”

“So far, for instance, research had generally assumed that Neanderthals associated in groups of no more than 20 individuals.”

“However, the information now obtained in relation to the systematic exploitation of straight-tusked elephants indicates that Neanderthals must have gathered, at least temporarily, in larger groups or mastered techniques that allowed them to preserve and store large quantities of foodstuffs — or both.”

“In a follow-up project, we hope to learn more about how Neanderthals hunted these massive elephants and how their hunting activities impacted these and other prey animals as well as their environments.”

The team’s paper was published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

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Sabine Gaudzinski-Windheuser et al. 2023. Widespread evidence for elephant exploitation by Last Interglacial Neanderthals on the North European plain. PNAS 120 (50): e2309427120; doi: 10.1073/pnas.2309427120