Mammut borsoni tusks at the Natural History Museum of Milea, Grevena

In 1997 Athanasios Delivos, a local of the village Milea in Grevena Western Macedonia, accidentally discovered a pair of tusks 4,39m long after a heavy rainfall.

Following the discovery a team of archaeologists from Aristotle University of Thessaloniki led by Dr. Evaggelia Tsoukala started excavations on the spot. Next discovery was the partial skeleton of a mastodont belonging to the family of Mammut borsoni.

The skeleton included substantial portions of the skull — maxillary area — with left and right molar series, with the longest upper tusks ever found in Greece (4.39 m), the most complete mandible with left and right molar series and two lower incisor tusks, as well as post-cranial skeleton. The skeleton belonged to a very large adult of about 40 years in age.

In 2007, Dr. Tsoukala and her team discovered new, longer tusks along with other findings. Their length was 5,02m and were awarded the World’s Guinness Records Award. This mastodont’s age was evaluated at 3.000.000 years… quite old. Various other parts of mastodonts and other pre-historic animals were also excavated.

Following are some pictures from the Museum located in Milea village just 15km east of Grevena town.