@article {327462,
	title = {Hunting and processing of straight-tusked elephants 125.000 years ago: Implications for Neanderthal behavior},
	journal = {Science Advances},
	volume = {9},
	year = {2023},
	note = {<p>doi: 10.1126/sciadv.add8186</p>
},
	pages = {eadd8186},
	abstract = {<p>Straight-tusked elephants (Palaeoloxodon antiquus) were the largest terrestrial mammals of the Pleistocene, present in Eurasian landscapes between 800,000 and 100,000 years ago. The occasional co-occurrence of their skeletal remains with stone tools has generated rich speculation about the nature of interactions between these elephants and Pleistocene humans: Did hominins scavenge on elephants that died a natural death or maybe even hunt some individuals? Our archaeozoological study of the largest P. antiquus assemblage known, excavated from 125,000-year-old lake deposits in Germany, shows that hunting of elephants weighing up to 13 metric tons was part of the cultural repertoire of Last Interglacial Neanderthals there, over \&gt;2000 years, many dozens of generations. The intensity and nutritional yields of these well-documented butchering activities, combined with previously reported data from this Neumark-Nord site complex, suggest that Neanderthals were less mobile and operated within social units substantially larger than commonly envisaged. Neanderthals hunted the largest terrestrial mammals 125,000 years ago.Straight-tusked elephants (Palaeoloxodon antiquus) were the largest terrestrial mammals of the Pleistocene, present in Eurasian landscapes between 800,000 and 100,000 years ago. The occasional co-occurrence of their skeletal remains with stone tools has generated rich speculation about the nature of interactions between these elephants and Pleistocene humans: Did hominins scavenge on elephants that died a natural death or maybe even hunt some individuals? Our archaeozoological study of the largest P. antiquus assemblage known, excavated from 125,000-year-old lake deposits in Germany, shows that hunting of elephants weighing up to 13 metric tons was part of the cultural repertoire of Last Interglacial Neanderthals there, over \&gt;2000 years, many dozens of generations. The intensity and nutritional yields of these well-documented butchering activities, combined with previously reported data from this Neumark-Nord site complex, suggest that Neanderthals were less mobile and operated within social units substantially larger than commonly envisaged. Neanderthals hunted the largest terrestrial mammals 125,000 years ago.</p>
},
	doi = {https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.add8186},
	url = {https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.add8186},
	author = {Gaudzinski-Windheuser, Sabine and Kindler, Lutz and MacDonald, Katharine and Roebroeks, Wil}
}
