History of lions in Europe

[1][2] The first excavated lion fossil was found in southern Germany, and described by Georg August Goldfuss using the scientific name Felis spelaea.

[5] Lion fossils have been excavated in Spain, Portugal, Italy, Belgium, France, United Kingdom, Germany, Poland, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary and Russia.

[30] The oldest confirmed remains of modern lion in Europe date to the early Holocene, around 8,000-6,000 years ago.

[8] A Neolithic lion tooth fragment representing the Atlantic Period was found in Karanovo, Bulgaria, and is estimated 6,000 years old.

[2] Bone fragments of the modern lion were excavated in Hungary and in Ukraine's Black Sea region, which are estimated at around 5,500 to 3,000 years old.

[18] In Southeast Europe, the lion inhabited part of the Balkan Peninsula as well as adjacent areas, ranging northwestwards to Hungary and eastwards Ukraine during the Neolithic period,[32][33][8] It survived in Bulgaria until the 4th or 3rd century BCE.

The peak of its historic range covered all of the plains and foothills of eastern Transcaucasia, westward almost to Tbilisi in modern Georgia.

According to him, lions were more numerous in North Africa than in Europe; they had approached towns, and attacked people only if they were old, or had poor dental health.

[41] In the 2nd century CE, Pausanias referred to lion presence east of Nestus in Thrace, in the area of Abdera.

He also referred to a story about Polydamas of Skotoussa, an Olympic winner in the 5th century BCE, who allegedly used his bare hands to kill a lion on Thessalian part of Mount Olympus; and to one about Caranus of Macedon who according to the Macedonians, raised a trophy that was thrown down and destroyed by a lion that was rushing down from Mount Olympus.