US EditionBone Found in Spain May Be First Evidence of Hannibal's Elephants
A 10-centimeter elephant carpal bone found at Colina de los Quemados, Spain, offers rare physical evidence of Carthaginian war elephants from the Second Punic War, researchers say.
- On February 5, 2026 researchers reported a roughly 2,200-year-old carpal bone unearthed near Córdoba was identified as an elephant in the February issue of Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports.
- Unearthing the bone beneath a collapsed adobe wall, archaeologists at the Córdoba dig recovered it during 2020 emergency excavations ahead of a hospital expansion.
- The study authors report stone artillery projectiles, scorpio-type siege weapons, and Carthaginian coinage minted in Cartagena , while poor preservation left the elephant specimen's species uncertain.
- Lead author Rafael Martínez Sánchez said the bone `could prove to be a landmark,` and study authors called it a rare relic that may reshape Punic War material-culture debates.
- Although iconic, researchers stress the elephant linked to Hannibal Barca's 37 war elephants did not cross the Alps, and the bone's exact historical event remains unclear, possibly a portable souvenir.
14 Articles
14 Articles
Hannibal's famous war elephants: Single bone in Spain offers first direct evidence
Historical accounts of the Punic Wars—and many other ancient wars—often paint a picture of soldiers riding in on imposing "war elephants." Yet, no skeletal remains of these war elephants had ever been found from the Punic War period and region. But, in 2020, archaeologists found a single bone at the Colina de los Quemados site in Córdoba, Spain that may finally provide some more direct evidence for the existence of these beasts of war. The findi…
Archaeologists find evidence of Hannibal's war elephants
A small bone discovered in southern Spain may represent the first direct archaeological evidence of the war elephants used by Hannibal Barca during the Punic Wars. The find, a 2,200-year-old elephant carpal bone roughly the size of a baseball, was unearthed in 2019 at an ancient fortified settlement near Córdoba. According to a new study led by archaeologist Rafael Martínez Sánchez of the University of Córdoba, the bone may belong to a war eleph…
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