Overview
- Researchers report more than 300 bones from a single straight-tusked elephant alongside over 500 stone artifacts at the Rome-area site.
- Many bones show fresh blunt-impact fractures soon after death, with several pieces deliberately reshaped into larger implements.
- Most flint tools measure under about 30 millimeters, and microscopic wear indicates use on soft material consistent with butchery.
- Volcanic ash layers constrain the event to roughly 404,000 years ago during a warm phase of the Middle Pleistocene.
- The assemblage was uncovered in 2017 during construction, the hominin makers remain unidentified, and the behaviors align with similar central Italian sites.