Forest elephant from Schöningen

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Leg bones of the forest elephant from Schöningen with ulna and radius

The Schöningen forest elephant is the fossil remains of a European forest elephant that lived around 300,000 years ago. The almost complete skeleton of the animal was discovered in 2017 in Schöningen in Lower Saxony . It was found during archaeological investigations in an excavation site in the Schöningen opencast mine .

General

Live reconstruction of a European forest elephant (drawing)

In general, the European forest elephant was a large representative of the elephant , which could reach a weight of more than ten tons with a shoulder height of over four meters . During the last warm periods of the Pleistocene , this species reached areas north of the Alps and can also be found in Central Europe . Finds located particularly far to the north are documented not only from individual remains from Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania but also from Lower Saxony.

The excavations in the Schöningen opencast mine, which have been going on since 1983 , make it known that there was a great variety of animals there over 300,000 years ago during the Reinsdorf warm period , a special characteristic of the Holstein warm period . Around 20 species of large mammals lived there in the vicinity of a former shallow lake , including lions , bears , saber-toothed cats , rhinos , giant deer , aurochs , steppe bison , wild horses and other ungulates . About 100 meters away from the place where the forest elephant was found, step seals of a herd of elephants with adult and younger animals were discovered in the sediments of the former lake , which is unique in Germany. The elephants ran parallel to the lake shore and left circular prints of up to 60 cm in diameter.

description

Lower jaw of the forest elephant from Schöningen with teeth

The individual from Schöningen is probably a female animal whose shoulder height is estimated to be around 3.2 meters and weight around 6.8  tons . During the excavation, 300 bones and a total of 700 bone parts were recovered, spread over an area of ​​around 64 m². The finds include the 2.3 meter long tusks , the lower jaw , vertebrae and ribs, as well as the bones of three legs and the entire hyoid bone . The skeletal parts were largely in an anatomically correct arrangement. Various parts were missing, such as the pelvis , the left front leg with the shoulder blade and the bones of two legs. The preservation of the bones is mostly very good, only the more than one meter high skull of the individual had disintegrated into hundreds of small parts. This was caused by the comparatively light construction of the skull, which, like all elephants, consists of numerous air-filled and honeycomb- like hollow chambers. Overall, the animal lay parallel to the former lake shore with the head in the north and the rear in the south. The age of the animal is estimated to be around 50 years due to the worn teeth and osteoarthritis of the bones.

Bite marks on the bones prove that predators ate the carrion of the forest elephant. Although no traces of human processing were found on the bones, there are indications of the presence of humans on the elephant carcass. So were between the bone about 30 haircuts of flints that the sharpening stone tools emerge. In addition, two bone artifacts were found that were used as tools by humans and had impact marks. These are the foot bones of a red deer and another approximately 12 cm long piece of bone from an animal species that cannot be identified.

Reference

Excavation manager Jordi Serangeli and the head of the Schöningen research station, Nicholas J. Conard , present the discovery site on the spear base to the Lower Saxony Minister of Science Björn Thümler
Find layer Schöningen 13 II silting sequence 3 in which the forest elephant was found

The location of the forest elephant ( Schöningen 13 II silting sequence 3 ) lies within the Schöningen opencast mine at a depth of about 12.5 meters below the original surface and about 2.5 meters below the horizon of the Schöningen spears ( Schöningen 13 II silting sequence 4 ). It is located at the edge of the open pit on a 50 × 60 meter base that was left out of the mining by Braunschweigische Kohlen-Bergwerke AG . The base protrudes into the open pit on three sides. The area, also known as the spear base , is one of several Palaeolithic sites in the Schöningen Süd open-cast lignite mine that was excavated from 1992 onwards in the course of prospecting the Quaternary cover layers. The approximately 3900 m² excavation base represents a small section of the shore zone of a former shallow lake, which was visited by humans and animals over thousands of years during the Reinsdorf warm period (approx. 320,000 to approx. 300,000 years before today). The base has five thick layers of layers (silting zones) that were created by fluctuating water levels in the lake and silting processes .

Conservation conditions

Like the previous archaeological finds in the Pleistocene deposits within the open pit in Schöningen, the bones, embedded in the mud layers of the silted lake, were preserved. The calcareous water of the lake brought in from the nearby Elm through streams , the airtight covering of the find layer by Mudden and the permanent location under the groundwater level , which was only artificially lowered by the Schöningen open-cast mine, which was operated from 1979, ensured that the finds were well preserved . This created favorable conservation conditions for organic material .

interpretation

According to the excavation manager Jordi Serangeli from the Senckenberg Research Station Schöningen, there is no evidence that the early man Homo heidelbergensis , who lived at the time, killed the forest elephant in the course of a hunt . It is true that people were successful hunters in the Paleolithic (as the 300,000-year-old Schöninger spears from the same site prove). Nevertheless, there was no compelling reason for them to hunt adult elephants and put themselves in danger. The scientists assume that the animal died of age. The site is on the bank of a former lake. It is known from today's elephants that old or sick animals are often near the water.

The archaeologists see the association of flint fragments and bone tools with the elephant bones as evidence that people were right next to the carcass at the time. With their tools they probably cut out the flesh , tendons and fatty tissue of the dead animal in order to use it as a source of food and material.

Research history

Restoration of a molar tooth of the forest elephant in the Schöningen research museum

After the discovery of the forest elephant in Schöningen in September 2017, it was exposed for almost two years. It was carried out by archaeologists from the Senckenberg Center for Human Evolution and Paleoenvironment at the University of Tübingen in cooperation with the Lower Saxony State Office for Monument Preservation . The scientists announced the discovery publicly in May 2020 at a press conference with the Lower Saxony Minister of Science Björn Thümler in Schöningen. At that point in time, the examination and restoration of the bones had not yet been completed. They take place in the Schöningen Research Museum , which is directly connected to the excavations and is about 300 meters away from the site. During the restoration process, it is possible to view the finds there, which will later be exhibited in the museum. The scientists gave the forest elephant the nickname "Nelly" in reference to the excavator, who bears the first name Neil .

Since the excavations began in the 1980s, the fossils of at least ten forest elephants have been found in the Schöningen opencast mine. These were individual finds of ribs, tusks or vertebrae that had to be hurriedly recovered from the approaching bucket wheel excavator during rescue excavations . The forest elephant discovered by Schöningen in 2017 is the only almost completely preserved skeleton. Since the site is in the open-cast mining area on the preserved spear base , the recovery took place without time pressure in close consultation with the restoration workshop of the Lower Saxony State Office for Monument Preservation. Further analyzes of the environmental and climatic conditions at the time of death of the animal, as well as of sedimentation processes in the former lake, are carried out by the Technical University of Braunschweig , the University of Lüneburg and the University of Leiden in the Netherlands. These sediment samples were analyzed for micro-fauna , micro morphology , Limnology and Paläobotanik taken.

Replica of a European forest elephant on the edge of the Elm forest above Schöningen

Due to the findings of elephant bones in the open pit, the life-size replica of a European forest elephant was erected above Schöningen in 2018. It stands on the edge of the Elm forest next to an excursion restaurant and is also used for tourist purposes. The reconstruction was made on the basis of a skeleton found at the Neumark -Nord site in the Geiseltal in Saxony-Anhalt .

For the year 2022, the President of the Lower Saxony State Office for the Preservation of Monuments, Christina Krafczyk, announced an exhibition with a focus on European forest elephants at the Schöningen Research Museum.

The Schöninger find in context

Earlier finds from Schöningen

Remains of the European forest elephant around 300,000 years old were found in the Schöningen opencast mine at Schöningen 12 as early as the 1990s , including individual tusks and lamellae. The same area also contained nearly two dozen remains of the European forest elephant from at least three individuals that were excavated between 2008 and 2009. This includes the tip of a tusk. It shows signs of polishing and was possibly used as a tool.

In August 2015, archaeologists discovered a large fragment of ribs, bone fragments and a two-meter-long tusk of a European forest elephant in the same open-cast mine. The location on the so-called spear pedestal (location Schöningen 13 II, silting sequence 2 ) was about 4.5 meters below the layer of the Schöningen spears and 15 meters from the location of the Schöningen forest elephant. Based on the sequence of layers at the site, the bones could be dated to an age of around 300,000 years.

Regional and national comparisons

Complete skeletons of the European forest elephant are relatively rare, especially in Central Europe, the animals mostly appear at the various sites in the form of remains of teeth and teeth or individual bones. One of the best-known finds and the next-youngest evidence of a European forest elephant in Lower Saxony is also offered by the site of the lance of Lehringen , near Verden . The animal perished in a hunting event in the last warm period ( Eem warm period ) about 120,000 years ago. During this time of the Middle Paleolithic , the Neanderthals lived in Europe . In addition to the lance that was stuck under or between the ribs of the animal, there were also 27 sharp-edged flint chips in the vicinity, which were apparently made on site at short notice. Since the animal had collapsed in the water, the people of that time could neither dismantle the entire carcass, nor recover the lance mentioned above.

From a supraregional point of view, the old find of the forest elephant from Gröbern in Saxony-Anhalt, which is comparable to Lehringen, is significant . There, too, the bank of a former lake hid a complete skeleton, which reconstructs a fully grown male with a shoulder height of around 4.2 meters represents. The almost 200 bones of the elephant were spread over an area of ​​20 square meters and were largely still in the anatomical association. There were only major remnants on the skull, the chest and the rear extremities. In direct connection, a good two dozen flint fragments were also found in Gröbern, mostly between the bones. Similar to Lehringen, it is assumed that the people of that time were only able to recover parts of the carcass. A second skeleton of a European forest elephant found in Gröbern in the same year showed no anthropogenic influence.

Significant finds also came to light in the Geiseltal , also in Saxony-Anhalt. There, on the bank of a former lake, the Neumark-Nord 1 basin , skeletons of around 70 individuals of the European forest elephant were found, some of them largely complete; they spread around the lake. The age of the lake basin is being discussed and, depending on the point of view, fluctuates from the penultimate warm period around 200,000 years ago to the last warm period. The numerous skeletal finds and good conservation conditions made it possible to pass on rarely proven bones such as the tongue and sternum . Individual animals showed pathological changes, for example in the form of hip dysplasia , stunted tusks or perforations, which could possibly be traced back to rivalry fights. The animals died of natural causes, but were later torn to pieces by large predators such as the cave lion or the cave hyena, which are also documented . Individual skeletons were connected with large flint debris, indicating activities of early humans. One of these artifacts, known as the “carving knife”, still had an organic residue that turned out to be oak bark extract.

Several partial skeletons of the European forest elephant from the travertines of Bad Cannstatt in Baden-Württemberg , which probably belong to the penultimate warm period, have been documented from southern Germany . Among them is a full-grown bull whose skeleton was spread over an area of ​​25 square meters and which, due to the 122 centimeter long upper arm and 144 centimeter long thigh bone, probably had a shoulder height of around 4 meters. For most elephant remains, exposure to early humans can be ruled out. Rather, the animals died due to illness or of old age in the vicinity of the spring water.

Question of elephant hunting

Various archaeologists in Germany have dealt with the question of elephant hunting in the Paleolithic. Thorsten Uthmeier from FAU Erlangen-Nürnberg thinks regular elephant hunts are unlikely. With the assumed clan size of five to ten people and a shelf life of 30 days for meat, only animals with a weight of up to one ton, such as cattle, deer or horses, would be considered as game. Elephants would provide up to ten times more meat than the group could consume over the period. However, elephants are still hunted with spears by pygmies in the central African rainforest . Michael Baales from the Ruhr-Universität Bochum considers the role of elephants at some European sites to be important, even if, despite the presence of cut marks, it cannot be clearly decided whether the animals were hunted or dead animals were eviscerated. After examining elephant remains, Sabine Gaudzinski-Windheuser from Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz comes to the conclusion that Stone Age material can prove the presence of humans in the vicinity of the sites. Nicholas J. Conard from the Eberhard Karls University of Tübingen considers the role of elephants in the Paleolithic economy to be elusive.

literature

  • Jordi Serangeli, Ivo Verheijen, Bárbara Rodríguez Álvarez, Flavio Altamura, Jens Lehmann, Nicholas J. Conard: Elefanten in Schöningen in: Archäologie in Deutschland 3/2020, pp. 8–13

Web links

Commons : Waldelefant von Schöningen  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Stefan Meng: Evidence of the European forest elephant Elephas antiquus (Falconer & Cautley, 1847) near Neubrandenburg in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania (NE-Germany) - find report. Neubrandenburg Geological Contributions 11, 2011, pp. 3–8
  2. ↑ Markus Brich: Schoeningen researchers name skeleton find Nelly in Helmstedter Nachrichten of May 19, 2020
  3. ↑ Jordi Serangeli, Ivo Verheijen, Bárbara Rodríguez Álvarez, Flavio Altamura, Jens Lehmann, Nicholas J. Conard: Elefanten in Schöningen in: Archäologie in Deutschland 3/2020, pp. 8-13
  4. ↑ 300,000 year old elephant from Schöningen almost completely preserved , press release from the Lower Saxony Ministry for Science and Culture from May 19, 2020
  5. ↑ Hubert Filser: Die Gianten vom See in Süddeutsche Zeitung from May 21, 2020
  6. ↑ Markus Brich: Forest elephant returns to the Elmrand in Helmstedter Nachrichten of January 27, 2018
  7. ↑ Markus Brich: How tourism is promoted in Helmstedter Nachrichten of December 3, 2018
  8. ↑ forest elephants in Schöningen at elmhaus.de
  9. ↑ Schöningen shows forest elephant skeleton in Westdeutsche Zeitung from May 20, 2020
  10. ^ Thijs van Kolfschoten: The vertebrates of the interglacial from Schöningen 12B. Ethnographisch-Archäologische Zeitschrift 34, 1993, pp. 623-628
  11. ↑ Jordi Serangeli, Utz Böhner , Thijs Van Kolfschoten and Nicholas J. Conard : Overview and new results from large-scale excavations in Schöningen. Journal of Human Evolution 89, 2015, 27-45
  12. ↑ Marie-Anne Juliena, Bruce Hardy, Mareike C. Stahlschmidt, Brigitte Urban, Jordi Serangeli and Nicholas Conard: Characterizing the Lower Paleolithic bone industry from Schöningen 12 II: A multi-proxy study. Journal of Human Evolution 89, 2015, pp. 264-286
  13. ↑ Jens Lehmann, Jordi Serangeli , Thomas Terberger : Schöningen. Elephant hunt 300,000 years ago in: Archeology in Germany , 1/2016, p. 5 f.
  14. ↑ Karl Dietrich Adam: The forest elephant of Lehringen - a prey of the diluvial man. Quartär 5, 1951, pp. 79-92 ( online )
  15. ↑ Hartmut Thieme and Stephan Veil: New investigations into the Eemzeitlichen elephant hunting ground Lehringen, Ldkr. Verden. in: Die Kunde 36, 1985, pp. 11-58
  16. ↑ Jörg Erfurt and Dietrich Mania: On the palaeontology of the Jungpleistocene forest elephant from Gröbern, Graefenhainichen district. In: Dietrich Manis, Matthias Thomae, Thomas Litt and Thomas Weber (eds.): Neumark - Gröbern. Contributions to the hunting of the Middle Paleolithic man. Publications of the State Museum for Prehistory in Halle 43 Berlin, 1990, pp. 215–224
  17. ^ A b Karlheinz Fischer: The forest elephants from Neumark-Nord and Gröbern. In: Dietrich Mania u. a. (Ed.): Neumark-Nord - An interglacial ecosystem of the Middle Palaeolithic people. Publications of the State Museum for Prehistory in Halle 62 Halle / Saale, 2010, pp. 361–374
  18. ^ Maria Rita Palombo: Intra-specific variation of stylohyoid bones in Palaeoloxodon: A case study of Neumark-Nord 1 (Geiseltal, Sachsen-Anhalt, Germany) straight-tusked elephants. Quaternary International 276/277, 2012, pp. 77-92
  19. ↑ Karlheinz Fischer: Hip dysplasia in a forest elephant (Elephas antiquus) from an intra-eel warm period from Neumark-Nord. In: Dietrich Mania et al. (Ed.): Neumark-Nord - An interglacial ecosystem of the Middle Palaeolithic people. Publications of the State Museum for Prehistory in Halle 62 Halle / Saale, 2010, pp. 375–380
  20. ↑ Karlheinz Fischer: Tuscan anomaly in a forest elephant (Elephas antiquus Falconer & Cautley, 1847) from Middle Pleistocene warm-time deposits from Neumark-Nord (Geiseltal near Merseburg, Saxony-Anhalt, Germany). In: Jan Michal Burdukiewicz, Lutz Fiedler, Wolf-Dieter Heinrich, Antje Justus and Enrico Brühl (eds.): Knowledge hunters . Culture and Environment of Early Man. Festschrift for Dietrich Mania. Publications of the State Museum for Prehistory in Halle 57 Halle / Saale, 2010, pp. 199–201
  21. ^ Federica Marano and Maria Rita Palombo: A pathologic straight-tusked elephant female from Neumark Nord (Germany). Il Quaternario. Italian Journal of Quaternary Sciences 24 (1), 2011, pp. 93-101
  22. ↑ Cajus G. Diedrich: Late Pleistocene Eemian hyena and steppe lion feeding strategies on their largest prey - Palaeoloxodon antiquus Falconer and Cautley 1845 at the straight-tusked elephant graveyard and Neanderthal site Neumark-Nord Lake 1, Central Germany. Archaeological and Anthropological Sciences 6, 2014, pp. 271-291
  23. ↑ Johann Koller and Ursula Baumer: The organic coating on the flint blade from Neumark-Nord. Excavation material or scaffolding putty? In: Harald Meller (Hrsg.): Elefantenreich - Eine Fossilwelt in Europa. Halle / Saale, 2010, pp. 553-563
  24. ^ Maria Rita Palombo, Ebru Albayrak and Federica Marano: The straight-tusked Elephants from Neumark-Nord. A glance into a lost world. In: Harald Meller (Hrsg.): Elefantenreich - Eine Fossilwelt in Europa. Halle / Saale, 2010, pp. 219–251
  25. ↑ Federica Marano and Maria Rita Palombo: Population structure in straight-tusked elephants: a case study from Neumark Nord 1 (late Middle Pleistocene ?, Sachsen-Anhalt, Germany). Bollettino della Società Paleontologica Italiana 52 (3), 2013, 207-218
  26. ↑ Karl-Dietrich Adam: Fossil finds from the Cannstatter Sauerwasserkalk. Find reports from Baden-Württemberg 11, 1986, pp. 25-61
  27. ↑ Jordi Serangeli: Collectors, hunters and a dead elephant in Schöningen. in: Archeology in Lower Saxony 19, 2016, pp. 100–103 ( online )