Over the past year or so, I’ve covered a lot of Neanderthal-related discoveries. The biggest takeaway from it all is that they weren’t too dissimilar from us, which is in itself a revelation given that for so long we made their very name synonymous with stupid and out of touch. A new study of Neanderthals published recently in Scientific Reports follows that trend of revealing the humanity of the Neanderthal, and it’s all thanks to a stabbing.
Researchers were looking at a 75,000-year-old partial skeleton nicknamed Shanidar A, named after where they found it, the Shanidar Cave in Iraq. It had a circular 15-millimeter puncture on the left shoulder blade. Speaking to Reuters, study lead author Dr. Emma Pomeroy of the University of Cambridge says that the fatal wound was likely caused by a downward thrust from a wooden spear that punched through the chest, into the lung, and through the heart before exiting the back.
Rough stuff. One could even call it distinctly Neanderthal behavior, assuming it was the result of some kind of clash among rivals, even though it could’ve just as easily been an accident.
This Neanderthal May Have Been Killed by a Spear. His Other Injuries Tell a Different Story.
The suggestion of a violent act also reveals a distinctly human, maybe even kind of touching reality upon closer examination: this Neanderthal experienced a degree of empathy. Not in the stabbing that punctured lungs and heart, but in other features. Shanidar A had severe but healed facial trauma that included a mouth of mangled teeth, an injury that the researchers theorize Shanidar A could’ve only survived with communal help since they probably couldn’t properly chew their food.
As Pomeroy said, “The pain would have been extreme, and basic needs like eating and drinking would have been difficult, perhaps meaning Shanidar A needed food mashing and being able to rest. It’s likely that Shanidar A did need some care from members of the group for some basic needs during recovery.”
Neanderthals had some real bad PR, but the more we find out about them, the more we realize they weren’t a bunch of stupid brutes that forgot to branch off into higher intelligence like the rest of us. They were violent, but they were also caring, and they knew how to keep their communities alive and thriving, even if, in time, Homo sapiens came out on top.
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