Elephants have been used in wars for a long time, and it is easy to see why. These massive animals are very tough, and would undoubtedly be terrifying to those who you are attacking.

One of the most famous examples of this is from the Second Punic War (218-201 BCE) where Hannibal is said to have used war elephants to great effect.

The evidence of this, however, has always been from written accounts of the events, not physical evidence. Until now.

A study published in the Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports looked at a carpal bone from an elephant that was found in 2020. It was discovered while clearing an area for construction of a medical consulting room of the Cordoba Provincial Hospital in Spain.

The team noted that the bone does not match any elephant species that lived in the region natively, and they also did carbon dating to find that it is likely around 2250 years old.

While the Second Punic War is certainly not the first example of elephants being used in warfare, it is one of the most famous. History notes that this is when Hannibal took the elephants across the Alps in order to fight against the Romans in the Battle of Trebbia River.

The war is widely seen in various pieces of art, culture, and literature. Associate Professor at the University of Cordoba, Rafael Martinez Sanchez, said of the findings:

“[T]his is the first time an elephant bone remnant linked to that chronology has been found in Iberia and, to our knowledge, in Europe. This stands in contrast to the interest shown by scholars and antiquarians in the 18th and 19th centuries in finding bones of these famous elephants.”

Additional study needs to be done on the bone to determine exactly what species of elephant that it does come from. In addition, researchers would undoubtedly like to be able to find other similar fossils to help confirm that this is what they are from. Martinez Sanchez was careful to note:

“The bone itself is not definitive proof – we do not rule out the possibility that the bone could have arrived in Córdoba as a curiosity or something similar – but it is the closest thing to definitive evidence of the presence of these animals, beyond literary or iconographic sources.”

So, while this does not confirm the stories of elephants being used in the Second Punic War, it does lend some credibility them.

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