Elephant meat - specialties of ancient people

The discovery of bones and ivory dates back to 400,000 years ago in the UK, suggesting that the ancient people had slaughtered elephants for meat.

Archaeologists analyze ivory. (Photo: BBC) The corpse of an adult elephant surrounded by stone tools was found in Kent. Scientists believe that hunters used tools to cut elephant meat, after killing animals with wooden spears.

The earliest evidence of this Stone Age was revealed when people were building Southfleet Road in Ebbsfleet, Kent. Excavations reveal the skeleton of an extinct elephant (Palaeoloxodon antiquus) located on the edge of what used to be a small lake.

Stone tools were scattered around, indicating that the animal had been dissected by an ancient tribe of people at that time, named Homo heidelbergensis.

"This is the oldest elephant surgery in the UK," said Francis Wenban-Smith at the University of Southampton. "In fact, this is the only place in England and it is very rare to find such intact evidence."

Dr. Wenban-Smith believes that the elephant, which is twice the size of today's humans, may have been taken down by a group of hunters equipped with wooden spears.

"They may have hunted an animal or found it in a state of injury and killing , " he explained. "Then they went to find nearby stone tools and grabbed around the animal, sawed the flesh and carried large pieces of meat to their tents."

The elephant may have been eaten raw because there was no evidence of using fire to cook at that time.

Hunters and gatherers may also have eaten many other large animals based on buffalo bones, rhinos, deer and horses found around.

The body of the animal consists of a part of the upper body, skull, 2 forelimbs, tusks and some teeth that have been taken to the Natural History Museum for analysis.