Tech · 19 d ago
JosephV at English Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 3.0 · Wikimedia Commons
A 75,000-year-old spear wound suggests Neanderthals fought to kill
Hole in a Neanderthal shoulder blade
15 mm
Archaeologists found a 15 mm hole in the shoulder blade of a Neanderthal who died about 75,000 years ago in Shanidar Cave, in Iraqi Kurdistan.
"The fatal strike may have been an intended heart shot."
— Emma Pomeroy, lead author, University of Cambridge
What we know
- A wooden spear passed through the body
- The individual was about 45
Not yet
- An attack or a hunting accident
- Whether it is the earliest such wound
A sharpened wooden spear likely went through the chest and out the left shoulder blade, but the researchers cannot rule out a hunting accident.
Why it matters
Chris Stringer of London's Natural History Museum, who was not part of the study, says an attack is more likely, adding to evidence that human violence goes deep into prehistory.
