Researchers have re-examined a 125,000-year-old straight-tusked elephant skeleton found in Germany in 1948, confirming that Neanderthals hunted and butchered the animal with a wooden spear lodged in its ribs. The findings, detailed in a recent Scientific Reports study, provide vivid evidence of Neanderthal big-game hunting skills. The elephant, a prime male over 3.5 metres tall, shows clear cut marks from flint tools.
In 1948, amateur archaeologist Alexander Rosenbrock discovered the bones of a Palaeoloxodon antiquus elephant in a lakebed at Lehringen, a hamlet near Verden, Germany. A 2.3-metre yew thrusting spear was embedded between the ribs, marking it as the only such weapon found in an extinct animal skeleton from that era. Neanderthals, the sole humans in Europe at the time, were long suspected of the kill, but doubts persisted for decades due to poor documentation and legal battles over the finds after Rosenbrock's death in the 1950s. The bones languished in storage until 2025, when Ivo Verheijen, a bones expert at the Schöningen Research Museum 150 kilometres away, revisited them. 'I was told there would only be a couple of boxes,' Verheijen said, but discovered a truckload in the attic, including flint tools, other animal bones, and Rosenbrock's notes continued by his daughter Waltraut Deibel-Rosenbrock. Verheijen quickly identified 'super clear' butchery marks on the elephant, which was about 30 years old and likely male, making it a solitary target. Cuts indicate processing from outside and inside, with organs harvested while fresh, ruling out scavenging. The team suggests the injured elephant retreated to water, possibly pursued by hunters using multiple spears, crushing one beneath it. Bones of bears, beavers, and aurochs at the site also bore butchery traces, pointing to repeated hunting at the lakeside. Verheijen's team plans further spear analysis and bone preservation for display. 'This is one of the most important Neanderthal sites in Germany,' he said. The study appears in Scientific Reports (DOI: 10.1038/s41598-026-42538-4).