The bone of Hannibal's "war elephant" has been found in Spain

In Cordoba, Spain, archaeologists have discovered a single elephant bone that may be the earliest and rarest direct evidence of the use of war elephants during the Punic Wars in Western Europe.

War elephants have long been one of the most recognisable 'pictures' of ancient wars, from descriptions in chronicles to images on coins and in art. The episode of the Carthaginian commander Hannibal leading elephants across the Alps during the Second Punic War is particularly firmly entrenched in cultural memory. However, for all the familiarity of these stories, archaeologists have until now had almost no direct animal remains to corroborate the stories of the sources.

That has changed thanks to a discovery in Cordoba. In 2020, before construction work related to the expansion of the provincial hospital, a rescue excavation was carried out at the Colina de los Quemados site (Colina de los Quemados). In the destruction layer - under a collapsed earthen (adobe) wall - the researchers found a bone that, after comparative analysis, was identified as an elephant carpal bone of the right forelimb.

The preservation of the find turned out to be poor: it was not possible to carry out DNA or protein analyses, so it is impossible to determine precisely whether the fragment belonged to an Asian or African elephant. Nevertheless, scientists performed radiocarbon dating of the mineral fraction of the bone - the results placed the find in the range between the late IV and early III centuries BC.

It is not yet possible to link the bone to a specific episode in history, but the context of the excavation appears to be 'military': artillery shells and other objects associated with armed combat were also found on the site. This allows the authors to suggest that the bone may be related to the events of the Second Punic War in Iberia, a period when the armies of Carthage actually used elephants as a factor of pressure and intimidation.

Researchers also note alternative versions: for example, that the bone could have appeared in the settlement by chance - as a trophy, "souvenir" or an object of exchange. But due to the utilitarian "unremarkability" of such a fragment, this interpretation looks less convincing than the connection with military actions.

If the interpretation is confirmed by further research, the find will become one of the very rare direct clues to the presence of war elephants in the Western European theatre of ancient wars, where previously we had to rely mainly on texts, iconography and indirect traces.