The violent lives of Neanderthals are revealed in 75,000-year-old remains discovered in the Middle East, which show evidence of a potentially fatal spear wound alongside injuries that had previously healed.
In a recent paper published in Scientific Reports, archaeologists describe Neanderthal remains recovered from a cave in Iraqi Kurdistan that display evidence of lethal violence.
The cave, known as Shanidar, lends its name to the individual, designated “Shanidar A.” Excavated in 2020, the remains tell a complex story of both violence and possible care, offering new insights into how Neanderthals experienced and survived serious injuries.
The First Neanderthal Violence
The discovery may represent the oldest known example of lethal interpersonal violence in the hominin fossil record: a perforation in a Neanderthal scapula, or shoulder blade, that researchers believe was caused by a wooden spear.
Recovered from beneath nearly seven and a half meters of rock and sediment, the remarkably well-preserved bone is so thin that it is translucent in places. Researchers say the rounded shape of the perforation suggests a wooden weapon, since stone points typically produce more angular or flattened openings.
The injury would have been devastating. According to the researchers’ reconstruction, the spear entered through the front of the individual’s body, passed through the left chest cavity, and exited near the shoulder blade. Along the way, it likely damaged a lung and major blood vessels, potentially causing a fatal injury.
The researchers suspect the attacker may have been aiming for the individual’s heart. By examining surviving fragments and anatomical features where muscles once attached, they were able to partially reconstruct the damaged bone. Their analysis also suggests the spear entered at a downward angle.
Rare Surviving Materials
“It’s extraordinary to have a perfectly preserved scapula from 75,000 years ago. These bones are so thin that you often don’t get complete scapulae from modern burials,” said lead author Dr Emma Pomeroy, of Cambridge University’s Department of Archaeology. “We were able to lift it out in one piece from under almost eight metres of rock and sediment.”
Organic materials such as wood typically decay over time, making the survival of ancient wooden weapons exceptionally rare. However, archaeologists have recovered wooden spears dating back hundreds of thousands of years, including examples discovered in Germany during the 1990s that may have been used as throwing weapons.
Although the weapon responsible for Shanidar A’s injury was not recovered, researchers believe it may have resembled these ancient spears. The discovery could also represent the oldest evidence of wooden spear use in the Middle East.
“Holes left by recreations of spears from this time are an excellent fit for the one we found in the Neanderthal scapula,” said Pomeroy. “That early technology absolutely works for this wound.”
“What evidence we have suggests that Neanderthals and their ancestors developed woodworking and weapon-making skills many thousands of years before the death of Shanidar A. This package of capabilities could have spanned the full range of Neanderthal homelands, from Wales to Siberia.”
Neanderthal Conflicts
Although a hunting accident cannot be entirely ruled out, researchers say the wound’s position and the force required to produce it make that explanation less likely. The precise circumstances remain unknown, but the team considers another Neanderthal the most likely attacker, although an encounter with a modern human is also possible.
Further examination of Shanidar A’s remains revealed evidence of earlier injuries. The individual, believed to have been approximately 45 years old, had previously suffered severe blunt-force trauma to the face, including damage that split a tooth.
Because the individual survived this earlier injury, researchers suggest that assistance from others may have played an important role in their recovery. The trauma would likely have caused considerable pain and made eating and communication difficult.
“Evidence of systematic violence is extremely rare in deep prehistory,” concluded Prof Graeme Barker, fellow of St. John’s College, Cambridge. “The vast majority comes from periods of settled farming communities thousands of years after hunter-gatherer societies like our Neanderthals. It is fascinating to have evidence for both compassion and violence amongst Neanderthals, our closest evolutionary cousins, embodied in this one individual.”
The paper, “Evidence for Funerary Behaviour and Lethal Trauma in a New Neanderthal Individual from Shanidar Cave,” appeared in Scientific Reports on October 15, 2026.
Ryan Whalen covers science and technology for The Debrief. He holds an MA in History and a Master of Library and Information Science with a certificate in Data Science. He can be contacted at ryan@thedebrief.org, and follow him on Twitter @mdntwvlf.