Indian Elephant Bones in Late Bronze Age Syria

Recently it was reported the finding of seven possible Indian elephant bones during excavations in 2008 from Tell Mushrife, the ancient site of Qatna in Syria, by Emmanuelle Vila in two archaeology conferences from 2008 and 2010, the last was the ICAZ conference in Paris.

Vila's abstract from this Paris conference also mentions the appearence, in Mesopotamia and Levant during 2nd millennium BC, of species from India like sesame, domesticated fowl and zebu, suggesting trade between India, Middle Asia and Syria.

D. Fuller's 2009 article with Nicole Boivin, "Shell Middens, Ships and Seeds..." points out: "there was also clear overland movement of zebu cattle from the Indus through Iran towards the Near East...with osteological evidence for some zebus in Mesopotamia and the Levant from the later third and second millennium BC" (p.159).

I hope the issue of these possible Indian elephant, zebu, sesame, and domestic fowls in Near East be taken into account within South Asian archaeologists circles for future studies.