Ancient Elephant Butchering Site Discovered in Greece

Archaeologists have uncovered a new Lower Paleolithic elephant butchering site in Greece. The new site may shed some light on the ancient tactics that people used in order to butcher and prepare elephants.

The site itself is called Marathousa 1, which is located in an open-cast coal mine, on what was once the shore of a shallow lake. It's shown complete skeletons of elephants, as well as the well-preserved remains of rodents, birds, amphibians, reptiles, mollusks and insects.

What's interesting, though, is that the elephant remains seem to have cut marks. Researchers have already dated the bones to about 300 to 600 thousand years before the present. They also discovered stone tools, which early hunters likely used to cut meat from the bones. This makes the site the only site where evidence of elephant butchering takes place in the early Paleolithic.

Marathousa 1 is one of the oldest archaeological sites in Greece.  The region is also one of the most likely routes for human migration into Europe, and also likely acted as a refugium for fauna, flora and human populations during glacial periods.

"Despite this crucial geographic position, Paleoanthropological and Paleolithic research has been under-represented in the region due to a traditional focus on later prehistory and Classical times," said Katerina Harvati, one of the researchers, in a news release. "As a result, very little information exists on the Lower Paleolithic of Greece. Marathousa 1 is of paramount importance for the understanding of the human dispersal patterns into Europe, as well as the adaptations and behavior of early humans in the region."

The findings are published in the journal Antiquity.

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