Shanidar A bones point to fatal spear wound and possible care among Neanderthals

Researchers studying Shanidar A, a Neanderthal whose remains were found in Shanidar Cave in Iraqi Kurdistan, reported on October 15 that a wound dating to about 75,000 years ago was likely fatal and consistent with a wooden spear thrust. They consider interpersonal violence the likeliest explanation, although they cannot establish who inflicted the injury or why. The finding offers rare physical evidence bearing on violence in deep prehistory.

What the Shanidar A shoulder blade shows

The left shoulder blade has a roughly circular perforation about 15 millimetres wide. Researchers say the wound's position and trajectory suggest a thrust entered the left chest from the front and passed through the body to the shoulder blade. Lead author Emma Pomeroy said the heart may have been involved, but described that possibility as speculative.

The team interprets the shape of the hole as consistent with a sharpened wooden spear: it says a stone tip would be expected to leave a flatter or more angular opening. The interpretation rests on the bone injury; no weapon was reported recovered. Reuters reported that the researchers regard violence between Neanderthals as more likely than either an attack by Homo sapiens or an accident. The Cambridge account says the participants and circumstances cannot be known.

An earlier facial injury and the possibility of care

Reuters describes an earlier blow to Shanidar A's face that damaged or knocked out front teeth, including a split tooth. Researchers say the nonfatal injury may indicate the individual received care, though that remains an interpretation of the remains. They could not determine Shanidar A's sex; the Cambridge account estimates the individual was about 45 years old at death.

The partial skeleton includes the left shoulder blade, part of the right hand, rib fragments and seven teeth. It was recovered beneath roughly 7.5 metres of rock and sediment. According to the University of Cambridge account published by Phys.org, a Cambridge-led team unearthed the remains, and the new findings were published in Scientific Reports.

Cambridge describes the injury as a possible earliest known example in the hominin fossil record of lethal interpersonal violence involving a wooden spear. Its account also notes that wooden objects rarely survive from deep prehistory and cites spears from Schöningen, Germany, dated to around 200,000 years ago. Those older surviving weapons provide context for the proposed weapon at Shanidar Cave; the claim here concerns an injury attributed to one.