She is 2.6 meters tall and weighs about 150 kg.
Israeli archaeologists on Wednesday unveiled a prehistoric elephant tusk discovered in the center of the country.
The oldest tusk found whole at a prehistoric site in the Middle East, according to the Israel Antiquities Authority (AIA), it was found in the area of the kibbutz of Revadim, near Ashkelon.
"Gigantic elephants roamed and grazed on this prehistoric site on Israel's coastal plain half a million years ago, as evidenced by this exceptionally well-preserved ancient tusk," the AIA said in a statement.
A “fantastic” find
It comes from a so-called straight-tusked elephant, a species "that disappeared from this region about 400,000 years ago," Avi Levy, director of excavations at the AIA, told AFP.
Based on the size of this tusk, the elephant must have been 4.5 to 5 meters tall.
Elephant bones had already been found in this area of Israel, but not a tusk of this type, described as a “fantastic” find by Avi Levy.
"The discovery of the tusk, detached from the skull and the rest of the body (of the elephant), raises the question: is the tusk the remains of a hunted elephant or was it collected by local inhabitants in prehistory ?
Did defense have a social or spiritual meaning?
ask Ofer Marder, professor of archeology at Ben Gurion University in Beersheva, and Ianir Milevski, director of the prehistory branch at the AIA.
Flint tools, used by prehistoric men to skin and carve animals, were also discovered near the tusk.
Archaeologists point out that the tusk is very fragile and can break.
When it is extracted from the ground, it will be transferred to an AIA laboratory for study and preservation.
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