An Elephas antiquus bogged down in the muddy bed of a lake that no longer exists, left to starve and then stripped of its flesh on the spot: that is the scene researchers have reconstructed from the remains at the Palaeolithic site of Atella, dated to somewhere between 600 000 and 550 000 years ago, in the lower Acheulean. It was not an isolated case. The shores of that lake were hunting ground: large mammals came down to drink and groups of hominids were waiting for them.
What to see
Nothing of the lake is left on the surface, but the deposit that formed along its banks preserved a quantity of faunal remains, largely of Elephas antiquus. They are what tells you the function of the place: not a settlement, but a watering point where animals arrived and where they were waited for.
The other half of the story is the stone tool industry, and it is the odd part. Much of it is made from porous radiolarite, a very light stone and therefore useless for hunting: you do not bring down an elephant with that. Researchers suppose it served the stage that came afterwards, stripping the flesh from prey already dead. A small detail that changes how the site reads: not a standing camp, but a place people went to for one purpose only.
