Kürek kemiğindeki bir delik, ölümcül bir Neandertal mızrak saldırısının izi olabilir

A round hole in the left shoulder blade of a Neanderthal who lived about 75,000 years ago may be the earliest fossil evidence of a deadly attack with a wooden spear. The individual, known as Shanidar A, was excavated in 2020 at Shanidar Cave in Iraqi Kurdistan. Because flint or stone tips tend to leave flat or angular openings, the Cambridge-led team argues that the 15-millimetre hole was made by a sharpened wooden point; holes produced with reconstructed spears of the period match it. Bevelled edges mark it as an exit wound, so the spear entered the chest from the front and passed through a lung. A hunting accident cannot be ruled out, but the wound’s position and the force required suggest a deliberate killing. Tartar on a tooth root exposed by an earlier blow to the face suggests that this adult survived that injury for at least a year, probably with help from others.