The Syrian elephant or Western Asiatic elephant ("Elephas maximus asurus") was the westernmost population of the Asian elephant ("Elephas maximus"), which became extinct in ancient times. Skeletal remains of "E. m. asurus" have been recorded from the Middle East: Iran, Iraq, Turkey and Syria, from periods dating between at least 1800 BC and likely 700 BC. Due to the lack of any Late Pleistocene or early to mid Holocene record for Asian elephants in the region, it has been suggested to have been anthropogenically introduced during the Bronze Age, though this is disputed.