{"id":295586,"date":"2026-02-21T19:16:16","date_gmt":"2026-02-21T19:16:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/295586\/"},"modified":"2026-02-21T19:16:16","modified_gmt":"2026-02-21T19:16:16","slug":"ancient-bone-may-be-first-physical-evidence-of-hannibals-war-machine-elephants-in-western-europe","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/295586\/","title":{"rendered":"Ancient bone may be first physical evidence of Hannibal\u2019s \u2018war machine\u2019 elephants in Western Europe"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n Archaeologists in Spain have uncovered an elephant bone from 2,200 years ago, and they believe it belonged to an animal that served as a \u201cwar machine\u201d in an army sent to invade the Roman Republic<\/a>.\n <\/p>\n

\n After discovering the ankle bone at the Colina de los Quemados archaeological site in the city of Cordoba in southern Spain, researchers used radiocarbon dating to ascertain that it belonged to an elephant that lived around the early fourth to late third century BC, according to a study published in the Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports<\/a>.\n <\/p>\n

\n Around this time, the city-state of Carthage, in what is now Tunisia, was battling with the Roman Republic for supremacy in the Mediterranean.\n <\/p>\n

\n The Carthaginians were known to use elephants as \u201cwar machines\u201d in their armies, according to the research, and classical accounts suggest the famed commander Hannibal had driven a troop of 37 elephants through modern day Spain and France, ultimately attempting to invade Italy by crossing the Alps during the Second Punic War, which took place from 218 to 201 BC.\n <\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

\n The incredible sight of Hannibal\u2019s elephants left its mark on the historical record, but no direct physical evidence of their presence in Western Europe had previously been discovered.\n <\/p>\n

\n In addition to the radiocarbon dating, which roughly aligns with the timeline of the Second Punic War, researchers said clues to their Hannibal theory also include 12 spherical stone balls used in artillery that they found alongside the bone, which \u201cprobably points to a military context.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n Although they acknowledge that the discovery of one bone in isolation does not indicate that the entire animal was at this site, as the bone could have been taken there as a curio or a souvenir, \u201chistorical and archaeological record suggest that its association with the events of the Second Punic War, whether direct or indirect, provides the most plausible explanation,\u201d the researchers noted in the study. They cited the presence of projectiles and arrowheads, which may have been left behind following a violent episode.\n <\/p>\n

Prestigious and \u2018psychological\u2019 weapons<\/p>\n

\n Battle elephants at this time were \u201cprestige weapons but also psychological weapons,\u201d according to Fernando Quesada-Sanz, the study\u2019s lead author and an archaeologist at the Autonomous University of Madrid, Spain.\n <\/p>\n

\n The animals were \u201cvery impressive and frightening for troops not accustomed to facing them,\u201d he told CNN in a statement Thursday.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cThey were also particularly useful against cavalry and to disorder enemy infantry lines,\u201d Quesada-Sanz added. \u201cThey were even used as spearheads to lead attacks against the palisades of temporary enemy fortifications such as campaign camps.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n Quesada-Sanz said that \u201cthis is the first time, as far as we know, that the actual remains of one of the elephants in the Carthaginian army has been found in European soil,\u201d adding that it could be part of one of the 21 elephants that classical sources say Hannibal left in Iberia before he started his march to Italy.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cThis find might be a wake up call for the study of collections from old excavations kept in museum storerooms in Spain, southern France or even Italy that could conceivably yield more examples,\u201d he said. \u201cAlso, bones from future excavations have to be checked carefully.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\"Archaeologists<\/p>\n

\n Eve MacDonald, an archaeologist and senior lecturer in ancient history at the University of Cardiff, Wales, and author of \u201cCarthage: A New History,\u201d who was not involved in the study, told CNN that the discovery is significant because it finally provides physical evidence for the long-held belief that the Carthaginians introduced elephants to the Iberian Peninsula during the third century BC.\n <\/p>\n

\n The context of the find, in a deposit of artillery weapons and other instruments of war, adds \u201ca compelling layer to the interpretation\u201d from the study\u2019s authors, she said.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cThere is something deeply satisfying about moments when the archaeological record steps up and confirms what history has long suggested,\u201d MacDonald said via email.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cThe legend of Hannibal crossing the Alps with 37 elephants has captured people\u2019s imaginations for millennia, the ancient Romans were astonished by it and we remain so today,\u201d she added.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cThis small bone\u2026 brings us one step closer to one of the most extraordinary military stories from the ancient world.\u201d\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Archaeologists in Spain have uncovered an elephant bone from 2,200 years ago, and they believe it belonged to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":295587,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[111,139,69,147,406],"class_list":["post-295586","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wildlife","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-science","tag-wildlife"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/295586","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=295586"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/295586\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/295587"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=295586"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=295586"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=295586"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}