Near a kibbutz in southern Israel, Israeli researchers recently discovered a massive prehistoric elephant’s tusk, a relic of a behemoth that was once hunted by early people about half a million years ago.
The 2.5-meter (yard) long fossil of the long-extinct straight-tusked elephant was discovered during a joint excavation with experts from Tel Aviv University and Ben-Gurion University, according to the Israel Antiquities Authority on Wednesday.
It was ‘the largest intact fossil tusk ever unearthed at a prehistoric site in Israel or the Near East,’ according to Israel Antiquities Authority prehistorian Avi Levy, who oversaw the dig.
Based on stone tools discovered nearby, the site was dated to the late lower palaeolithic period, some 5,000 years ago, the antiquities authority said.
Omry Barzilai, an IAA archaeologist, described the discovery as ‘extremely intriguing, very cryptic’ because it was unclear if prehistoric people had hunted the behemoth nearby or had taken the animal’s tusk there after it had been killed.
On the middle plain, which runs parallel to Israel’s Mediterranean coast, the tusk was discovered close to a kibbutz. However, the now-arid landscape was probably a swamp or small lake half a million years ago, an ideal environment for prehistoric humans.
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