The study, conducted by Sapienza University of Rome in collaboration with the Museum of Civilisation, the CNR – Institute of Environmental Geology and Geoengineering (IGAG) and the Soprintendenza speciale Archeologia, Belle Arti e Paesaggio of Rome, represents a fundamental piece in understanding the interactions between archaic hominins and large mammals in the European context. Field investigations, which began in 2017 and continued until 2019 under the direction of the Special Superintendence for Archaeology, Fine Arts and Landscape of Rome, resumed in 2023 under the coordination of Sapienza, with a new phase of interdisciplinary study.

To date, fewer than twenty sites globally have been identified that document the exploitation of elephant carcasses by archaic hominins. Casal Lumbroso is notable for the richness of its finds and the methodological approach adopted, which has enabled the chain of events leading to the deposition of the fossils and the interactions between Homo sapiens and elephants to be reconstructed in detail. During the excavations, an incomplete ancient elephant carcass was found alongside stone and bone tools made from the same elephant. Taphonomic analysis revealed that the animal was a source not only of food, but also of raw material for the production of bone tools.

Among the animal remains found were rhinoceroses, cattle, deer (including fallow and roe), and wolves, bearing witness to a rich ecosystem that has now disappeared. This research helps us to reconstruct events that took place in a world that was profoundly different, yet geographically close.

In an ancient landscape, along the course of a small river, a group of hunter-gatherers slaughtered an elephant and used its bones as tools.

Today, species such as Palaeoloxodon antiquus no longer exist in Europe, but their fossils tell a profound story of human adaptation, lost environments and climate change.

The study was made possible thanks to the collaboration between institutions and researchers. An interdisciplinary group of archaeologists, palaeontologists, geologists and specialists from various other disciplines combined their expertise and integrated geological and stratigraphic analyses of the deposit, as well as geochemical analyses of volcanic sediments. These analyses made it possible to date the site to approximately 400,000 years ago. Isotopic analyses conducted on an elephant tooth indicated a forested environment with a hot and humid climate.

References:
Mecozzi B, Fiore I, Giaccio B, Giustini F, Mercurio S, Monaco L, et al. (2025) From meat to raw material: the Middle Pleistocene elephant butchery site of Casal Lumbroso (Rome, central Italy). PLoS One 20(10): e0328840. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0328840