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. 2023 Feb 3;9(5):eadd8186.
doi: 10.1126/sciadv.add8186. Epub 2023 Feb 1.

Hunting and processing of straight-tusked elephants 125.000 years ago: Implications for Neanderthal behavior

Sabine Gaudzinski-Windheuser  1   2 , Lutz Kindler  1   2 , Katharine MacDonald  3 , Wil Roebroeks  3
Affiliations

Hunting and processing of straight-tusked elephants 125.000 years ago: Implications for Neanderthal behavior

Sabine Gaudzinski-Windheuser et al. Sci Adv. .

Abstract

Straight-tusked elephants (Palaeoloxodon antiquus) were the largest terrestrial mammals of the Pleistocene, present in Eurasian landscapes between 800,000 and 100,000 years ago. The occasional co-occurrence of their skeletal remains with stone tools has generated rich speculation about the nature of interactions between these elephants and Pleistocene humans: Did hominins scavenge on elephants that died a natural death or maybe even hunt some individuals? Our archaeozoological study of the largest P. antiquus assemblage known, excavated from 125,000-year-old lake deposits in Germany, shows that hunting of elephants weighing up to 13 metric tons was part of the cultural repertoire of Last Interglacial Neanderthals there, over >2000 years, many dozens of generations. The intensity and nutritional yields of these well-documented butchering activities, combined with previously reported data from this Neumark-Nord site complex, suggest that Neanderthals were less mobile and operated within social units substantially larger than commonly envisaged.

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Figures

Fig. 1.
Fig. 1.. Location of Neumark-Nord and other Last Interglacial archaeological sites on the northern European plain, relative to the maximum extension of the Saalian and Weichselian glaciers.
Just south of the Saalian glaciated area, where Neumark-Nord is located, occurs a rich series of Last Interglacial travertine sites.
Fig. 2.
Fig. 2.. Chronostratigraphic position and location of elephant bone complexes from Neumark-Nord.
NN1, basin Neumark-Nord 1; NN2, basin Neumark-Nord 2. The blue contour lines indicate the shape of the basins at, respectively, 8, 16, and 24 m below the modern day surface. Dark green dots indicate skeletal remains of one or multiple individuals; light green dots indicate isolated tusk(s) occurrences. The grid system consists of 100 m by 100 m. (A) Unit 4. Eemian PAZ III (duration, ~450 years), lake transgression with maximum expansion of water table indicated in dark green and littoral zone in light green. (B) Unit 6.1 (lower littoral zone) during Eemian PAZ IVa, a short regression phase with minimum expansion of water table indicated in dark green and littoral zone in light green. Formation duration, ~300 years. (C) Unit 6. Eemian PAZ IVa (duration, 1200 years), lake transgression with maximum expansion of water table indicated in green. Indicated in basin NN2 is the excavation area of the contemporaneous level NN2/2B, with a formation duration of ~450 years. (D) Unit 7. Eemian PAZ V (duration, 4000 years), lake transgression with maximum expansion of water table indicated in green. Maps redrawn and modified after (17, 29). Subdivision and attribution of PAZ after (58) and duration of each PAZ after (25).
Fig. 3.
Fig. 3.. MNE (minimal number of elements) for bones of P. antiquus from Neumark-Nord (light green), MNE of cut-marked bones (dark green), and MNE of bones displaying damage induced by large carnivores (blue).
For data, see tables S1 and S2.
Fig. 4.
Fig. 4.. Frequency of MNE displaying cut marks on P. antiquus bones from Neumark-Nord 1 (n = 1181), in percentage per skeletal element.
For data, see tables S1 and S2.
Fig. 5.
Fig. 5.. Cut marks on skeletons of P. antiquus from Neumark-Nord.
The position of cut marks on the skeletons is indicated by the numbering. For detailed descriptions, see text. Bones of different individuals from 12 bone complexes [E1, E8, E17, E21, E22, E24 (individuals E24A, E24B, and E24D), E29, E32, E35, E36, E40, E43] served as examples.
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