Ancient Elephant Fossil in India Reveals Earliest Clues of Human Butchery

In the recent wave of discoveries from India, new research has come forth in terms of fossil remains of the giant elephant Palaeoloxodon Turkmenicus. The remains found in the year 2000 in Pampore Valley, Kashmir date back to between 300,000 to 400,000 years ago. However, the fossil remains unraveled a big mystery only recently regarding human evolution.

Image Credit: Florida Museum. Photo courtesy of Advait Jukar

A new analysis of the elephant bones revealed that the very early humans in the Kashmir part of India struck the elephant with self-made tools to extract the marrow for food. With the evidence of flakes from the elephant’s bones, it’s safe to say that this can be considered the earliest known form of animal butchery roughly 300,000 to 400,000 years back.

The experts identified that the specimen’s bones had an impact flake resulting from repeated hammering with a sharp stone instrument. In the first instance, the several strikes to the bones were to initiate a fracture. However, when this process failed the early Humans started striking blows to the bones with a more forceful hammer to completely fracture the bones. The researchers identified that this kind of practice is similar to the bone marrow processes these days.

So the question to ask is, “Who were these Hominins? What were they doing in Kashmir eating big elephants 300,000 to 400,000 years ago? The author and curator of vertebrate paleontology at the Florida Museum of Natural History, Advait Jukar, said in a statement, “It might just be that people haven’t looked closely enough or are sampling in the wrong place. But up until now, there hasn’t been any direct evidence of humans feeding on large animals in India.” The team is of the view, that there might be more evidence of animal butchery out there.

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References:

1. Saraceni, J. E. (2024, October 22). Butchered Elephant Fossil From India Identified. Archaeology Magazine. https://archaeology.org/news/2024/10/23/butchered-elephant-fossil-from-india-identified/

2. Jukar, A. M., Bhat, G., Parfitt, S., Ashton, N., Dickinson, M., Zhang, H., … Craig, J. (2024). A remarkable Palaeoloxodon (Mammalia, Proboscidea) skull from the intermontane Kashmir Valley, India. Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology. https://doi.org/10.1080/02724634.2024.2396821

3. Taylor & Francis. (n.d.). A remarkable Palaeoloxodon (Mammalia, Proboscidea) skull from the intermontane Kashmir Valley, India. Figshare. https://tandf.figshare.com/articles/dataset/A_remarkable_i_Palaeoloxodon_i_Mammalia_Proboscidea_skull_from_the_intermontane_Kashmir_Valley_India/27210989

4. Higgs, E. (2024, October 22). Ancient Hominins Ate Giant Elephant, Earliest Evidence Of Animal Butchery In India Reveals. IFLScience. https://www.iflscience.com/ancient-hominins-ate-giant-elephant-earliest-evidence-of-animal-butchery-in-india-reveals-76468

   

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Keywords: Butchery, Ancient Fossil, Paleology, Ancient Elephant, India, Animal Fossils, Ancient Elephant in India.