A small wrist bone found in 2020 at a fortified Iberian site in Córdoba may be the first elephant skeletal remain plausibly linked to Hannibal’s march into Italy during the Second Punic War. The fragment was recovered in the same layer as artillery shot, a heavy siege bolt, and a Carthaginian coin dated 237–206 BCE, and the find is reported in the February issue of the Journal of Archaeological Science. Researchers caution the species cannot be confirmed from the fragment alone, but the discovery could offer rare direct evidence of war-elephant use in Classical Western Europe.
Small Wrist Bone Found in Córdoba May Be First Skeletal Evidence Linking Hannibal’s Elephants to His Italian Campaign
A member of staff of the Natural History Museum in Berne, Switzerland, checks the skeleton of an elephant on show at the museum
Archaeologists report that a small, baseball-sized bone unearthed in 2020 at a fortified Iberian settlement in Córdoba, Spain, may be the first elephant skeletal remain that plausibly connects Hannibal’s forces to the campaign that carried his army from Carthage into Italy during the Second Punic War.
What Was Found
The fragment was identified by laboratory analysis as a carpal (wrist) bone from the right forefoot of an elephant. It was recovered from the same stratigraphic layer that contained artillery shot, a heavy bolt from a siege engine, and a Carthaginian coin struck between 237 and 206 BCE. The find is reported in a study published in the February issue of the Journal of Archaeological Science.
A general view of the ancient ruins of the Greek and Roman city of Cyrene where the recent Storm Daniel has hit Libyan town of Shahhat, Libya, September 29, 2023. (credit: REUTERS/ESAM OMRAN AL-FETORI)
Why This Matters
If the association and dating hold, this specimen could represent one of the rare direct pieces of skeletal evidence for the use of war elephants in Classical Antiquity on the Iberian Peninsula and possibly in Western Europe. Historical sources describe Hannibal employing elephants as he moved his forces from North Africa across Iberia and over the Alps into Italy during the Second Punic War (218–201 BCE); this bone offers a tangible link—albeit tentative—between those accounts and the archaeological record.
Limitations and Next Steps
The researchers caution that the fragment alone is insufficient to determine the precise species. The paper discusses two possibilities: an Asian elephant (the species famously used by King Pyrrhus in earlier conflicts with Rome) or an extinct North African/forest African type that Carthage may have favored. Further analyses—such as additional morphological comparison, ancient DNA (if preservation allows), and broader contextual study of nearby sites—will be needed to strengthen the identification and the association with Hannibal’s forces.
“It may constitute one of the scarce instances of direct evidence on the use of these animals during Classical Antiquity, not only in the Iberian Peninsula but also in Western Europe,” wrote archaeologist and lead author Rafael Martínez Sánchez. He added that while it would not be one of the famous elephants that crossed the Alps, it could be an early physical relic of animals used in the Punic–Roman wars.
Researchers also note comparable material—military artifacts and coins—has been recovered at other Spanish sites associated with the Second Punic War, strengthening the broader contextual case even as species identification remains unresolved.
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