Discoveries in eastern Germany suggest that Neanderthals either accumulated large amounts of meat and fat or gathered in larger groups to eat elephants. New research by a team of researchers from the Johannes-Gutenberg University Mainz (JGU), the Leibniz Center for Archeology (LEIZA), also in Mainz, and Leiden University in the Netherlands found that Neanderthals hunted the now-extinct Palaeoloxodonantiquus extensively.
The research was recently published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS). The researchers carefully examined elephant skeletons dating back approximately 125,000 years that were discovered decades ago in Grobern, Saxony-Anhalt, Germany, and Taubach, Thuringia. They were able to identify cut marks left by stone tools used by Neanderthals, which indicated that the animals must have been hunted before being slaughtered in large numbers.
Two years ago, the same research team found the first evidence that Neanderthals actively hunted rhombopods, the largest terrestrial mammals of the Pleistocene, while analyzing bones found at the Neumark-Nord site in an old lignite mining area in Saxony-Anhalt. This research was published in Science Advances in early 2023.
"The latest results of the skeletons from the Groebern and Taubach sites show that Neanderthal hunting of these elephants was not an isolated phenomenon, but must have been a more regular activity," emphasizes Sabine Gaudzinski-Windheuser, Professor of Prehistory and Prehistoric Archeology at JGU and Director of the Center for Archaeological Research and the Museum of the Evolution of Human Behavior (MONREPOS) in Neuwied. Gaudzinski-Windhauser was extensively involved in the investigation of the Grobein and Taubach remains, as well as in previous studies of remains from Neomark-Northern sites.
Between 800,000 and 100,000 years ago, Palaeoloxodon antiquus roamed the lands of Europe and Western Asia. This European straight-toothed elephant had a shoulder height of 4 meters and a weight of 13 tons. It was the largest land animal at that time, much larger than today's African and Asian elephants, and even larger than the extinct woolly mammoth.
"We estimate that one adult Palaeoloxodon antiquus could provide enough meat and fat to meet the daily caloric intake of at least 2,500 adult Neanderthals," explains Gorzinski-Wendhuys. "This is an important number because it provides new insights into Neanderthal behavior."
For example, studies so far generally believe that Neanderthals gathered in groups of no more than 20 people. However, information now available about the planned exploitation of rhomboids suggests that Neanderthals must have gathered in larger groups, at least temporarily, or mastered techniques for preserving and storing large amounts of food, or both.
In follow-up projects, the researchers hope to learn more about how Neanderthals hunted these massive elephants and how their hunting affected these elephants, other prey, and the environment.