Rare fossils of extinct elephant document the earliest known instance of butchery in India – Research News
This news release, for example, exposes the fact that there were humans butchering elephants in India between 300,000 and 400,000 years ago in that 99.9975% of Earth's history that happened before creationists believe there was even an Earth for people and elephants to live on.
The evidence is the cut marks on the remains of a three extinct giant elephants, Palaeoloxodon turkmenicus, which died near a river at what is now Pampore in the Kashmir Valley. Soon after they died, they were covered in sediment and buried along with 87 stone tools that had been used to butcher them along with the bone flakes that show the bones were struck in exactly the right way to extract the marrow. The butchers clearly knew what they were doing.
Palaeoloxodon turkmenicus. Palaeoloxodon turkmenicus is an extinct species of elephant that once roamed Central Asia. It belonged to the genus Palaeoloxodon, which includes several other ancient elephants characterized by distinctively large bodies and a prominent, domed skull. Unlike its more famous relative, Palaeoloxodon antiquus — the Straight-tusked elephant of Europe—P. turkmenicus was primarily found in Turkmenistan and surrounding regions.The team who carried out the excavation, which included Advait Jukar, a curator of vertebrate paleontology at the Florida Museum of Natural History, have published their findings in the journal Quaternary Science Review and explained them in a a Florida Museum Research News item by Jiayu Liang.
Here are some notable aspects:
- Distinctive Features: Like other Palaeoloxodon species, P. turkmenicus had an elongated head with a pronounced crest on the skull, which might have supported massive muscles for trunk attachment and jaw movement. This structural feature contributed to its impressive cranial structure and overall size.
- Adaptation and Habitat: Fossil evidence suggests that P. turkmenicus was well-adapted to the semi-arid and steppe regions of Central Asia. The species likely inhabited a mix of open grasslands and woodlands, which provided both grazing opportunities and some cover.
- Diet and Behavior: This elephant likely had a diet similar to other large herbivores of its time, primarily grazing on grasses, leaves, and possibly even bark. Its massive size would have made it a dominant presence in its ecosystem, potentially influencing plant composition and the behavior of other herbivores and predators.
- Extinction: P. turkmenicus is thought to have become extinct toward the end of the Pleistocene, around the same time as many other large mammals. Climate change, habitat changes, and potentially human activity may have contributed to its decline.
Fossils of P. turkmenicus are rare, and paleontologists continue to study the species to better understand its relationship to other Palaeoloxodon members and the environment of Pleistocene Central Asia.
Rare fossils of extinct elephant document the earliest known instance of butchery in IndiaThe second paper is behind a paywall with only the abstract freely available:
During the late middle Pleistocene, between 300 and 400 thousand years ago, at least three ancient elephant relatives died near a river in the Kashmir Valley of South Asia. Not long after, they were covered in sediment and preserved along with 87 stone tools made by the ancestors of modern humans.
The remains of these elephants were first discovered in 2000 near the town of Pampore, but the identity of the fossils, cause of death and evidence of human intervention remained unknown until now.
A team of researchers including Advait Jukar, a curator of vertebrate paleontology at the Florida Museum of Natural History, published two new papers on fossils from the Pampore site. In one, researchers describe their discovery of elephant bone flakes which suggests that early humans struck the bones to extract marrow, an energy-dense fatty tissue. The findings are the earliest evidence of animal butchery in India.
The fossils themselves are also rare. In a second study the researchers described the bones, which belong to an extinct genus of elephants called Palaeoloxodon, whose members were more than twice the weight of today’s African elephants. Only one set of Palaeoloxodon bones for this species had been discovered previously, and the fossils from this study are by far the most complete.
Since it was first unearthed in 2000, the giant elephant skull has been stored, mounted in cement, in a glass box.Photo: Advait Jukar
To date, only one fossil hominin — the Narmada human — has ever been found on the Indian subcontinent. Its mix of features from older and more recent hominin species indicate the Indian subcontinent must have played an important role in early human dispersal. Prior to the fossil’s discovery in 1982, paleontologists only had stone tool artifacts to give a rough sketch of our ancestors’ presence on the subcontinent.
So, the question is, who are these hominins? What are they doing on the landscape and are they going after big game or not? Now we know for sure, at least in the Kashmir Valley, these hominins are eating elephants.
Advait M. Jukar, lead author
Department of Geosciences
University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona, U.S.A.
The stone tools likely used for marrow extraction at the Pampore site were made with basalt, a type of rock not found in the local area. Paleontologists believe the raw materials were brought from elsewhere before being fully knapped, or shaped, at the site. Based on the method of construction, they concluded that the site and the tools were 300,000 to 400,000 years old.
Previously, the earliest evidence of butchery in India dated back less than ten thousand years.
Nick Ashton, left, and Ghulam Bhat, right, survey the stone tools.Photo: Advait Jukar
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.
Advait M. Jukar
Most of the Pampore site’s elephant remains came from one mature male Palaeoloxodon. The inside of its skull showed abnormal bone growth that likely resulted from a chronic sinus infection.
While it was clear that early humans exploited the carcass, there was no direct evidence of hunting, such as spear points lodged in the bones. The hominins could have killed the elephant or simply found the carcass after it died of natural causes — weakened by its chronic sinus infection, the elephant could possibly have gotten stuck in the soft sediments near the Jhelum River, where paleontologists eventually found it.
The Palaeoloxodon skull is the most complete specimen of its genus found on the Indian subcontinent. Researchers identified it as belonging to the extinct elephant Palaeoloxodon turkmenicus, fossils of which have only been found on one other occasion, in 1955. This earliest fossil was of a partial skull fragment from Turkmenistan. While it looked different from other members of the genus Palaeoloxodon, there wasn’t enough material to determine with certainty whether it was, in fact, a separate species.
The problem with Palaeoloxodon is that their teeth are largely indistinguishable between species. So, if you find an isolated tooth, you really can’t tell what species of Palaeoloxodon it belongs to, you have to look at their skulls.
Advait M. Jukar
Fortunately, the Pampore specimen’s hyoids — bones at the back of the throat that attach to the tongue — were still intact. Hyoids are fragile but distinctive between species, providing a special tool for taxonomizing.
Palaeoloxodon originated in Africa about a million years ago before dispersing into Eurasia. Many species in the genus are known for having an unusually large forehead unlike that of any living elephant species, with a crest that that bulges out over their nostrils. Earlier species of Palaeoloxodon from Africa, however, do not have the bulge. Meanwhile, P. turkmenicus is somewhere in between, with an expanded forehead with no crest.
It shows this kind of intermediate stage in Palaeoloxodon evolution,” Jukar said. “The specimen could help paleontologists fill in the story of how the genus migrated and evolved.
Advait M. Jukar
Advait Jukar stands next to a Palaeoloxodon namadicus skull at the Indian Museum in Kolkata, India. P. namadicus is the largest species in its genus.Photo: Advait Jukar.
Given that hominins have been eating meat for millions of years, Jukar suspects that a lot more evidence of butchery is simply waiting to be found.
The thing I’ve come to realize after many years is that you just need a lot more effort to go and find the sites, and you need to essentially survey and collect everything. Back in the day when people collected fossils, they only collected the good skulls or limb bones. They didn’t collect all the shattered bone, which might be more indicative of flakes or breakage made by people.
Advait M. Jukar
PublicationsThe stone tool and elephant butchery study was published in Quaternary Science Reviews.Highlights
Ghulam Bhat of the University of Jammu; Nick Ashton of the British Museum; Simon Parfitt of the Natural History Museum, London; Marc Dickinson of the University of York; Bindra Thusu of University College London; and Jonathan Craig of Durham University are also authors on the paper.
The taxonomy study was published in the Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology.
Ghulam Bhat of the University of Jammu; Simon Parfitt of the Natural History Museum, London; Nick Ashton of the British Museum; Mark Dickinson of the University of York; Hanwen Zhang of the University of Helsinki; A.M. Dar and M.S. Lone of the Government Degree College Spore; Bindra Thusu of University College London; and Jonathan Craig of Durham University are also authors on the paper.
- The Pampore elephant, Kashmir, India, from the Pampore Member of the Upper Karewa Group, dates to the Middle Pleistocene.
- New investigations by an Indo-British team in 2019 attribute the elephant to Palaeoloxodon.
- It is the only Middle Pleistocene elephant site from India to be found in association with an in situ lithic assemblage.
- The lithic assemblage is probably attributable to a Mode 3 industry, which suggests a late Middle Pleistocene age.
- Elephant bone breakage and flaking shows exploitation of the bones by humans, but no evidence of hunting or butchery.
Abstract
Stone tools in association with Pleistocene elephant remains were recovered from Pampore, Kashmir, India, in 2000 from channel deposits in the Pampore Member of the Upper Karewa Group of sediments, which are interpreted as Middle Pleistocene in age. In March 2019 the elephant remains were re-examined to establish taxonomy, cause of death and evidence of human intervention, alongside study of the stone tools and age of the site. This paper reports the results of this work. Most of the elephant remains, including skull and tusks, are from a large adult, but at least two other elephants are also represented. Taxonomic analysis shows that the adult belongs to the genus Palaeoloxodon, but with a mix of features not seen in typical Palaeoloxodon skulls from the Indian Subcontinent. Pathology of the skull indicates severe sinusitis, which may have contributed to the death. No cut-marks from butchery were found on the elephant bones, although three elephant bone flakes were identified, linking human intervention with elephants at the site. The small lithic assemblage is in fresh condition with some refitting artefacts, both suggesting minimal post-depositional movement. Most of the artefacts consist of flakes, flake tools and cores, but with several points and blades suggestive of an early Mode 3 prepared core technology. This might indicate a late Middle Pleistocene age for the site. Further dating evidence using amino acid racemisation on elephant tooth enamel is ongoing, but consistent with this age. The association of stone tools with humanly-modified elephant remains is rare, while prepared core technology is currently scarce further north or east in Asia in the late Middle Pleistocene. The significance of the discovery is discussed in the wider context of Middle Pleistocene elephant-human interaction.
1. Introduction
1.1. Background
Over the last thirty years there have been important advances in the understanding of the early human occupation of the Indian subcontinent, but still with significant questions about the age of the various industries and the hominins involved (Patnaik and Chauhan, 2009; Dennell and Petraglia, 2012; Blinkhorn and Petraglia, 2017; Chauhan, 2020, 2023). With the growing number of early sites and hominin remains in China, dating back to over 2 Ma (Luo et al., 2020.1; Xing et al., 2021), there is renewed focus on south Asia, not just as an area for tracking populations and technologies from the West, but as a complex region that potentially also saw human dispersals from the East (Dennell and Petraglia, 2012; Boivin et al., 2013; Dennell, 2016, 2018). There are possible early flake industries such as Riwat in Pakistan at over 2 Ma (Dennell et al., 1988; Dennell, 1998), but the earliest Acheulean site at Attirampakkam in south India has yielded average cosmogenic dates of 1.5 Ma (Pappu et al., 2011). There are now numerous sites and findspots that record Acheulean technology, although few have firm dates (Corvinus, 1968; Mishra, 2007; Dennell, 2009.1; Haslam et al., 2011.1, 2012.1; Singh, 2018.1), and many undated pebble tool industries in the north of the Indian subcontinent covered by the term ‘Soanian’ (De Terra and Paterson, 1939) are thought to be late Middle Pleistocene in age (Chauhan, 2008a; Dennell, 2016). The earliest Middle Palaeolithic sites with Levallois technology are argued to be from c. 380 ka in south India (Akhilesh et al., 2018.2; Anil et al., 2022), yet in some areas, such as the Son Valley, the Late Acheulean lasted until c. 140 ka (Haslam et al., 2011.1; Shipton et al., 2013.1). Attribution of these industries to hominin species is also difficult, as there is only one hominin cranium from Middle Pleistocene deposits at Hathnora in the Narmada Valley (Sonakia, 1984; de Lumley and Sonakia, 1985; Sonakia and Biswas, 1998.1; Kennedy and Chiment, 1992; Patnaik et al., 2009.2; Sankhyan et al., 2012.2). The undated fossil was found in a secondary context and has a mix of archaic and modern features, which emphasises the importance of the Indian subcontinent as a crossroads for early human diaspora, as well as an important region of occupation, with its own distinctive identity.
This paper focuses on the evidence of stone tools and associated elephant remains from Pampore (Kashmir, India), to evaluate how they can be contextualised within the complexity of the Palaeolithic record of south Asia. The Pliocene and Pleistocene deposits of the Siwalik Hills provide one of the classical sequences for early discoveries of proboscidean fossils and understanding of the evolution of elephants (Falconer and Cautley, 1846; Murchison, 1867). The Pampore elephant is an important fossil from this region and contributes to furthering knowledge about their evolution in the Pleistocene, as well as potentially helping to constrain the age of the site. Pampore is also the only Middle Pleistocene site in the Indian subcontinent to have elephant remains in close association with stone tools and is briefly alluded to by Chauhan (2008.1b). The relationship between humans and elephants has been a topic of debate since the inception of Palaeolithic studies in the mid-19th century (Evans, 1860, 1872). However, convincing evidence of elephant exploitation has been rare, with little evidence of hunting, as opposed to scavenging. Earlier claims (e.g. Clark and Haynes, 1970; Leakey, 1971; Freeman, 1975; Goren-Inbar et al., 1994) have received greater scrutiny (e.g. Binford, 1987; Kaufulu, 1990; Villa et al., 2005; Wright et al., 2014; Haynes and Krasinski, 2021.1; Haynes, 2022.1a), but with the result that there are a growing number of sites with good evidence of elephant exploitation, and the use of bones for tools, including handaxes (e.g. Villa et al., 2005; Boschian and Saccà, 2012.3; Anzidei et al., 2012.4; Rabinovich et al., 2012.5; Saccà, 2012.6; Zutovski and Barkai, 2016.1). The evidence for human-elephant interaction at the Pampore site is fully investigated in this paper.
1.2. The Pampore site
The site is in a former quarry at Galander, near Pampore, 17 km to the south of Srinagar city. The quarry (33°, 59′, 24”N, 74°, 55′, 27”E) had been exploiting an outcrop of Pleistocene sediments, sandwiched between the Srinagar to Jammu highway to the east and the Jhelum River to the west (Fig. 1, Fig. 2, Fig. 3, Fig. 4). The elephant remains were discovered in late August 2000 by Dr Ghulam M. Bhat from the University of Kashmir, Srinagar, and his colleagues from the Government Degree College Sopore, Kashmir. A steep north-eastern facing section on the quarry edge, revealed c. 14 m of Pleistocene sediments, which were composed of predominantly clay, sand and silt, with sand-filled channels towards the base. The discovery of a large elephant skull within one of the channels led to several weeks of excavation during October and early November 2000. The poorly consolidated sediments above the channel deposits were a challenge for safe excavation (Fig. 2). Despite these difficulties, stone artefacts and further faunal remains were recovered within 20 m of the skull location towards the eastern end of the section.
Fig. 1. Location of Pampore Elephant site (yellow star) in Kashmir Valley, India.
Fig. 2. a. Pampore elephant site. b. Elephant skull under excavation.
Fig. 3. Geological map of the Kashmir Valley (a) and the area around Pampore (b). The elephant site is marked with a star and was found within the Pampore Member.
Fig. 4. Location of the Pampore Elephant site at Galander, near Pampore, with schematic section log through the sediments exposed in the outcrop.Bhat, Ghulam M.; Ashton, Nick; Parfitt, Simon; Jukar, Advait; Dickinson, Marc R.; Thusu, Bindra; Craig, Jonathan
Human exploitation of a straight-tusked elephant (Palaeoloxodon) in Middle Pleistocene deposits at Pampore, Kashmir, India Quaternary Science Reviews, 342 108894; 10.1016/j.quascirev.2024.108894
Copyright: © 2024 The authors.
Published by Elsevier. Open access.
Reprinted under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license (CC BY 4.0)
ABSTRACTThe dates of these fossils places them much too early for the hominin butchers to have been Homo sapiens, so this shows that archaic hominins, such as H. erectus had dispersed into South Asia several tens of thousands of years before H. sapiens left Africa. They are almost certainly the ancestors of the later archaic Eurasian hominins such as the Denisovans, Neanderthals, H. heidelbergensis and H. antecessor.
In this study, we describe a remarkably well-preserved cranium and stylohyoids of a large elephant from the Middle Pleistocene Pampore Member in the Karewas of Kashmir that was found associated with 87 stone tools. Based on the cranio-dental morphology, we assign the skull to the genus Palaeoloxodon, a lineage of massive elephants that evolved in Africa in the Early Pleistocene, and later dispersed across Eurasia. The skull possesses a combination of plesiomorphic and derived features of Palaeoloxodon, most notably, a broad, expanded frons and a nasal aperture with rounded margins that is characteristic of derived Eurasian Palaeoloxodon; but with an extremely underdeveloped parieto-occipital crest that is reminiscent of the basally branching African species, Palaeoloxodon recki. It is most similar in morphology to the type skull of Palaeoloxodon turkmenicus from Central Asia. The morphology of the stylohyoids is also different from those referred to Palaeoloxodon antiquus from Europe and Palaeoloxodon naumanni from Japan. While the validity of P. turkmenicus has been questioned in the past, this new specimen from Kashmir provides a strong case for a Middle Pleistocene species of Palaeoloxodon in Central and South Asia with intermediate morphologies between basally branching African species, and more derived Eurasian species.
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
© 2024 Informa UK Ltd (Taylor & Francis Group).
Reprinted under the terms of s60 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
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