Possible Fatal Wound Identified in Neanderthal Bone

Archaeology Magazine ^ | October 15, 2026 | editors / unattributed

[SunkenCiv]

Haaretz reports that Emma Pomeroy of the University of Cambridge and her colleagues examined the remains of Shanidar A, a Neanderthal of about 45 years of age who was buried in Iraqi Kurdistan's Shanidar Cave some 75,000 years ago. The researchers suggest that the individual had been killed when a weapon, likely a sharpened stick, was forced into his chest from the front, passed through a lung, and punched a hole in his left shoulder blade. Similar holes have been identified in fossilized animal bones. About a year before his death, this individual had also suffered facial injuries, including a shattered front tooth. An earlier study determined that another individual known as Shanidar 3, who lived about 50,000 years ago, died after an injury to the ribs. Yet he also suffered from a degenerative disorder of the foot that would have required long-term care. "I think we have to see the same complexity in Neanderthals that we see in people today," Pomeroy said. "Some are violent, some care," she explained. "We have contrasting stereotypes about hunter-gatherers -- one where they are at one with nature, the other that life was nasty, brutish, and short. But the story is more complex than that," she concluded. Read the original scholarly article about this research in Scientific Reports. For more on Neanderthal remains from Shanidar Cave, go to "Z Marks the Spot."

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TOPICS: History; Science; Travel
KEYWORDS: ancientautopsies; godsgravesglyphs; iraq; kurdistan; neandertal; neandertals; neanderthal; neanderthals; paleolithic; shanidarcave

[SunkenCiv]

Ribs (top) and scapula (above) of Shanidar A

E. Pomeroy

[SunkenCiv]

[GMMC0987]

Hopefully this will get picked up one of those cold case shows on TV. There are some crimes that don’t have a statue of limitations.

[SunkenCiv]

That’s a better idea than they usually have for TV.

[Nachoman]

I take it he wasn’t well liked by his clan.

[SunkenCiv]

Sounds like a hunting accident, or he was wounded defending his kin. “Yet he also suffered from a degenerative disorder of the foot that would have required long-term care.”

[EnderWiggin1970]

likely a sharpened stick

Otherwise known as a spear.

[ClearCase_guy]

[sphinx]

75,000 years ago? Well, that would push back the date at which white people arrived and started the killing./sarc

The myth of the noble savage, from Rousseau down to now, has had a long run. Men are not naturally good. We have to work at it.

[Red Badger]

75,000 years ago?

Not 75,003?................

[Red Badger]

He was shot...............By Colonel Mustard in the library with a sharp stick.....................

[PAR35]

Looks more like a bullet hole than something made with a sharp stick.

[wafflehouse]

makes me wonder what kind of force it took to drive a wooden spear through a shoulder blade like that. seems like it would be ‘a lot’

[SunkenCiv]

😀 Uh-oh, some ne’er do well is sneaking up with a handful of loganberries...

[SunkenCiv]

Schöningen Spears from the FRchives, sorted:

• New Study Redates Famous Schöningen Spears [05/19/2025]
• 300,000-year-old throwing stick documents the evolution of hunting [04/26/2020]
• Direct evidence of Neanderthal fibre technology and its cognitive and behavioral implications [04/10/2020]
• New insights on the wooden weapons from the Paleolithic site of Schoningen [10/25/2015]
• Skilled hunters 300,000 years ago [09/18/2012]
• 400,000 year old spears found in an German coal mine! [10/11/2010]
• Excalibur, The Rock That May Mark A New Dawn For Man [01/09/2003]