Ancient bone may prove legendary war elephant crossing of Alps

An elephant foot bone found by archaeologists digging in southern Spain may be evidence that a troop of war elephants stomped through ancient Europe. It would be the first concrete proof of the legendary Carthaginian General Hannibal's troop of battle elephants, according to academics. Drawings of Hannibal's war against the Romans had long suggested that the beasts were used in fighting, but no hard evidence backed up the theories. Now the creatures' skeletal remains appear to have been found in an Iron Age dig near Cordoba. Beyond ivory, the discovery of elephant remains in European archaeological contexts is exceptionally rare, says the team of scientists in a paper published in Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports.