The Syrian or Western Asiatic elephant (sometimes given the subspecies designation Elephas maximus asurus) was the westernmost population of the Asian elephant (Elephas maximus), which went extinct in ancient times, with early human civilizations in the area utilizing the animals for their ivory, and possibly for warfare.[2] Skeletal remains of E. m. asurus have been recorded in the Middle East, notably from Iran, Iraq, Syria, and Turkey, from periods dating between at least 1800 BC and likely 700 BC.[3] Due to the lack of any Late Pleistocene or early to mid-Holocene records for Asian elephants in the region, there are suggestions that the elephants were anthropogenically introduced, or transported, there during the Bronze Age,[3] though this is disputed.[4]
Ancient Syrian and Assyrian craftsmen used the tusks of E. m. asurus to make ivory carvings. Regionally, the production of ivory items was at its height during the first millennium, BC, when the Arameans crafted splendid ivory inlays for elite furniture.
^Deraniyagala, P. E. P. (1951). "Elephas maximus, the elephant od Ceylon". Spolie Zeylanica. 26: 161. ISSN 0081-3745.
^Choudhury, A.; Lahiri Choudhury, D. K.; Desai, A.; Duckworth, J. W.; Easa, P. S.; Johnsingh, A. J. T.; Fernando, P.; Hedges, S.; Gunawardena, M.; Kurt, F.; Karanth, U; Lister, A.; Menon, V.; Riddle, H.; Rübel, A. & Wikramanayake, E. (IUCN SSC Asian Elephant Specialist Group) (2008). "Elephas maximus". IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. 2008: e.T7140A12828813.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
^ abÇakırlar, Canan; Ikram, Salima (2016-05-03). "'When elephants battle, the grass suffers.' Power, ivory and the Syrian elephant". Levant. 48 (2): 167–183. doi:10.1080/00758914.2016.1198068. ISSN 0075-8914.
^Pfälzner, Peter (2016-12-01). "The Elephants of the Orontes". Syria (IV): 159–182. doi:10.4000/syria.5002. ISSN 0039-7946.
The Syrian or Western Asiatic elephant (sometimes given the subspecies designation Elephas maximus asurus) was the westernmost population of the Asian...
(meaning "the Syrian," or possibly "One-Tusker"). This individual, according to his documented name and large size, may have been a Syrianelephant (Elephas...
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the Indian elephant: Syrianelephant (E. m. asurus), proposed by Deraniyagala in 1950, was based on Bronze Age illustrations. Chinese elephant (E. m. rubridens)...
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varieties of arthropoda and bivalves. Centuries ago, Asian elephants (the Indian or Syrianelephant) once lived in the region of Qeshm and other regions of...
to his master so he could redeem himself from slavery. The Syrian and North African elephant populations were reduced to extinction, probably due to the...
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extinction of the aurochs, bubal hartebeest, and hippopotamus. The Syrianelephant might have once existed in small numbers in Israel, in ancient times...
his account of elephants, but like most Westerners he believed the animals live for two hundred years. Roman scouts in the royal Syrian parks shortly before...
Syria and Lebanon, with relatively few carved locally. The ivory used to make these objects would originally have been derived from Syrianelephants which...
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Due to the Roman focus on infantry and its discipline, war elephants were rarely used. While the Romans did eventually adopt them, and used them occasionally...
Asian black bear and a female Syrian brown bear. Noor Jehan (died; 22 April 2023) was a 17-year-old female African elephant who lived at the zoo. She was...
the lower Tigris in 1918. The last Arabian oryx was shot in 1914. Syrianelephants roamed Mesopotamia until around 700 BC. List of mammals of Iraq Wildlife...
Polybius, King Antigonus I Monophthalmus established the Syrian kingdom which included Coele-Syria. The Seleucid king Antiochus III the Great defeated the...
Oriental Orthodox faction includes the Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church and the Jacobite Syrian Christian Church, resulting from a split within the Malankara...
Least weasel, Mustela nivalis Golden hamster, Mesocricetus auratus Syrianelephant, Elephas maximus asurus Wildlife of Israel List of chordate orders...
Antiochus III's reign (which Numismatist Arthur Houghton dubs "The Syrian and Coele-Syrian Experiment") began minting bronze coins (weighing 1.25–1.5g) to...
domesticated Asian elephant in India". In I. Baker; M. Kashio (eds.). In Giants on our hands. Proc. Int. Workshop on the domesticated Asian elephant (PDF). pp...
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