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A Neanderthal skeleton reportedly offers a rare combination of evidence. The remains, identified as Shanidar A, belong to a man in his 40s who died roughly 75,000 years ago at Shanidar Cave in Iraqi Kurdistan. Researchers have that a circular hole in his left shoulder blade matches the shaft diameter of wooden spears. Examples of such spears have been found in Europe, dating between 200,000 and 400,000 years old. The round opening showed no signs of bone repair. Nearby fragments suggest the occurred at or near the moment of death. Emma Pomeroy of the University of Cambridge, who led the paper, described the specimen as displaying both behaviour and violence within one individual. The skeleton's teeth showed partial repair from a severe facial impact suffered during the man's life. Pomeroy said this injury would have been extremely painful and likely required group assistance with eating and drinking. The body was positioned behind a large boulder separating it from the cave entrance. Remains of at least four additional Neanderthals were on top over years or decades afterward. Australian National University archaeologist Sofia Samper Carro, not involved in the discovery, said the cause-of-death conclusion was too strong given the available evidence. She agreed the fracture pattern is compared to normal linear bone breaks but argued the leap to a specific cause was without recovering the actual weapon. Pomeroy noted that the wood did not survive, so certainty about the spear hypothesis remains impossible.
