Widespread evidence for elephant exploitation by Last Interglacial Neanderthals on the North European plain.

ABSTRACT: Neanderthals hunted and butchered straight-tusked elephants, the largest terrestrial mammals of the Pleistocene, in a lake landscape on the North European plain, 125,000 years ago, as recently shown by a study of the Last Interglacial elephant assemblage from Neumark-Nord (Germany). With evidence for a remarkable focus on adult males and on their extended utilization, the data from this location are thus far without parallel in the archaeological record. Given their relevance for our knowledge of the Neanderthal niche, we investigated whether the Neumark-Nord subsistence practices were more than a local phenomenon, possibly determined by local characteristics. Analyzing elephant remains from two other Last Interglacial archaeological sites on the North European plain, Gröbern and Taubach,

SUBMITTER: Gaudzinski-Windheuser S 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10723128 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature