ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - A Neanderthal whose 75,000-year-old remains were discovered in the Kurdistan Region’s Shanidar cave likely died from a wooden spear wound after surviving a severe facial injury, a British archaeologist told Rudaw, saying the findings offer rare insights into violence, care and burial practices among prehistoric humans.
“This time, we found a very incomplete skeleton of an adult individual, and it is really important because we have evidence of two episodes of violence or trauma,” Emma Pomeroy, a paleoanthropologist at the University of Cambridge, told Rudaw’s Nma Nabaz in an interview on October 21.
The remains, identified as Shanidar A, belong to a Neanderthal estimated to have been around 45 years old. A study led by Pomeroy and published in Scientific Reports in mid-October identified a circular hole in the individual’s left shoulder blade, consistent with an injury inflicted by a wooden spear.
Located in the Kurdistan Region’s Soran administration, Shanidar cave has been central to the study of Neanderthals since excavations began in the 1950s. Discoveries of injured individuals who survived serious disabilities, alongside evidence of possible intentional burials, have challenged earlier perceptions of Neanderthals and raised questions about their social relationships and treatment of the dead.
Pomeroy explained that the weapon appears to have entered the individual’s chest from the front and passed through the body before piercing the shoulder blade. The absence of healing around the wound suggests it occurred around the time of death.
“I think we can be fairly confident that that’s what caused it,” she said, referring to the individual’s death.
However, whether the injury resulted from an intentional attack or a hunting accident remains uncertain.
Neanderthals used both throwing spears and weapons designed for thrusting at close range, Pomeroy explained. If the injury was inflicted with a thrusting spear, she said, the attacker would have needed to be within one or two meters of the victim, making an intentional attack more likely.
The same individual had previously suffered a serious facial injury that split a tooth. The accumulation of dental calculus around the damaged tooth suggests the Neanderthal survived for at least a year afterward.
The injury may have affected the individual’s ability to eat, raising the possibility that other members of the community helped during recovery.
“We do think they were probably cared for,” Pomeroy said, although she cautioned that the evidence cannot establish whether the individual received assistance or recovered independently.
Beyond the injuries, the discoveries are also shedding light on how Neanderthals treated their dead.
Several individuals, including Shanidar A and the previously discovered Shanidar Z, were found clustered in a confined area of the cave, behind a massive stone approximately two meters tall.
“It is a very small space. We can tell from how the bones are preserved that they are coming back multiple times, so all the bodies were not put there all at once,” Pomeroy said.
The repeated placement of bodies in the same location suggests that the spot held particular significance for Neanderthal communities, potentially pointing to burial traditions or even a form of spiritual importance.
“That would suggest not only that this spot is important to them but I would say Shanidar cave as well,” she added.
However, researchers have yet to establish why the location was chosen.
Questions also remain about the famous flower burial hypothesis, which emerged after pollen was discovered around Neanderthal remains excavated at Shanidar in the 1950s and 1960s.
The theory suggested Neanderthals deliberately buried their dead with flowers, although subsequent research raised the possibility that pollen had been introduced through natural processes, including the activity of bees.
Pomeroy said researchers are reexamining older sediment samples and collecting new material around Shanidar A and Shanidar Z to better understand the presence of pollen and other plant remains.
The archaeologist also confirmed that the Neanderthal remains currently undergoing specialist examination at Cambridge would eventually be returned to the Kurdistan Region.
“They will definitely be returned to Kurdistan. That is where they should be,” she said.
She explained that the remains require carefully controlled temperature and humidity conditions to prevent deterioration, and discussions are ongoing about suitable facilities for their long-term preservation and possible display.
“We are still figuring out how they will come back to Kurdistan, how they might be stored and displayed so they last for many generations, but absolutely they will be coming back to Kurdistan,” she said.
Researchers are also investigating when Neanderthals stopped using the cave and whether they overlapped with modern humans who subsequently occupied it.
Pomeroy stressed that only a small portion of the enormous cave has been excavated, leaving open the possibility of further discoveries.
“Shanidar cave is so big, and we have only excavated a part of it. That just shows how important, precious a site Shanidar cave is, and how we need to protect it,” she said.
She added that the cave is particularly important for understanding the diversity of Neanderthals, whose history has largely been reconstructed from discoveries in Western Europe.
“It is really important that we understand how diverse, how variable Neanderthals were, and Shanidar cave is incredibly important.”
