Archaeologists have discovered a 2,200-year-old elephant carpal bone near Córdoba, Spain, potentially providing the first direct physical evidence that Carthaginian general Hannibal Barca used elephants during the Second Punic War.

In 218 BC, Hannibal famously led his army, including roughly 40 elephants, across the Alps to invade Italy. Until now, the strongest archaeological evidence of their journey came from disturbed soil and other traces left by the elephants. 

A study led by Rafael Martínez Sánchez of the University of Córdoba, published in the February issue of Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports, suggests that the baseball-sized bone, discovered in March 2020 during construction work expanding Córdoba’s Provincial Hospital, may have belonged to a Carthaginian war elephant.

After careful comparison with anatomical collections at the University of Valladolid and the University of Leiden, researchers identified the bone as the third carpal bone of an elephant’s right foreleg. The specimen was measured against bones from Asian elephants and a steppe mammoth, confirming its origin.

It appears a Carthaginian army stationed nearby during the Second Punic War had engaged in a battle at the ancient fortified village near Córdoba, and that the elephant was killed in the fighting, the researchers wrote in the study.

Other evidence of military activity at the site included 12 spherical stones the researchers believe were ammunition for Carthaginian catapults.

Most of the elephant’s skeleton seemed to have decayed, but the carpal bone was protected by a collapsed wall, the researchers wrote. They do not rule out the possibility, however, that the bone survived because it was taken as a souvenir, as it is small enough to carry.