The left scapula of Shanidar A, photographed in the University of Cambridge’s Leverhulme Centre for Human Evolutionary Studies. Credit: University of Cambridge
Did Neanderthals Care for the Injured? One Skeleton Offers a Clue
In A Nutshell
- A 75,000-year-old Neanderthal skeleton has a round shoulder blade hole that fits a wooden spear.
- The study’s press release says it may be the earliest known wooden spear attack on a human relative.
- A split tooth shows the same individual survived a severe facial injury, likely with care from others, researchers say.
- Whether the wound came from a hunting accident or violence between people, the paper says, “cannot be known.”
A Neanderthal who died about 75,000 years ago in a cave in Iraqi Kurdistan may be the earliest known victim of a wooden spear attack on a human relative, according to the study’s press release. A round hole about 15 millimeters wide pierces the left shoulder blade, and researchers say it fits a wooden spear that passed through the chest and likely killed quickly.
Named Shanidar A, the skeleton comes from Shanidar Cave, one of the world’s most famous Neanderthal sites. A cluster of bones found there in 1960 inspired a discredited claim that Neanderthals buried their dead with flowers. Wood rarely lasts tens of thousands of years, so a hole in bone may be all that remains of such a weapon. The same skeleton shows a second injury, one the person survived: a split tooth and damaged lower face that researchers say likely required care from other Neanderthals.
Both injuries are described in a new report in Scientific Reports. Together, the find touches two big questions about Neanderthals: how violent they were, and how much they looked after one another.
Flash Flood Left Only Part of This Neanderthal Skeleton
Excavators at the cave since 2015 dug up Shanidar A in 2019 and 2022, about 150 millimeters (6 inches) below another Neanderthal. A mostly complete right hand, three rib pieces, the left shoulder blade, and six teeth survived. Heavy tooth wear points to an older adult, around 45 by Neanderthal standards.
Soil clues show the body was laid in a dry streambed and partly covered with sand soon after death. Once it decayed to bone, a flash flood washed away most of the skeleton.
Neanderthal Shoulder Blade Hole Is Consistent With a Wooden Spear
Nearly intact, the shoulder blade was scanned with micro-CT, which builds 3D images from X-rays. Bone chips lay buried beneath the hole, and one fit back into the opening like a puzzle piece. No new bone had grown around the hole, so it never began to heal, which places the injury around the time of death. An angled edge on the back side indicates something entered from the front and exited through the back.
Experiments by other teams, hitting animal bones with wooden, bone-tipped, and stone-tipped weapons, found that a rounded wooden spear fits a hole like this better than a stone point, which usually leaves a narrower, oval or diamond-shaped hole. A few wooden spears 200,000 to 400,000 years old have turned up in Germany and England, but the Shanidar hole is only indirect evidence of wooden weapons at this site. Another Neanderthal from the cave, Shanidar 3, has a puncture wound in the ribs and lived about 25,000 years after Shanidar A.
Attack or accident is the open question. Lead author Emma Pomeroy of the University of Cambridge said in the press release, “The position of the wound and the force required to push it right through the Neanderthal’s body bear the hallmarks of an intended kill shot directed towards the heart.” She allowed that hunting large animals up close with thrusting spears could cause lethal accidents, and the paper states that whether it was a hunting accident or interpersonal violence “cannot be known.”
Split Tooth Shows a Neanderthal Survived a Severe Facial Injury
One lower front tooth had split lengthwise, with half lost. Hardened plaque called calculus coated the broken surfaces, and the chewing surface was polished from use, showing the tooth stayed in the mouth and kept working after the break. Nearby teeth likely twisted out of place. Without the jaw and facial bones, the cause cannot be pinned down, though a hard fall or a blow from another person are both plausible.
Pomeroy said, “Surviving a blow that splits a tooth in this fashion, then continuing to live and eat for a period of at least a year and maybe more, would have required care and support from other Neanderthals.” The paper is more cautious, saying such damage may have affected eating, communication, and pain for a long time, and that the individual may have needed care from group members.
Neanderthal Burial Cluster Grows to at Least Five Individuals
Shanidar A raises the minimum number of individuals in a burial cluster at the cave to five, four adults and an infant, packed into an area about 1.5 meters long and 1 meter wide behind a fallen boulder. Sediment layers show the bodies were placed at different times, during mild weather, which rules out a group dying together from cold. Researchers argue that repeated, intentional placement is the most reasonable explanation. Shanidar A lay lower than the rest and had no dug grave pit, so a link to the cluster is likely rather than certain.
Co-author Graeme Barker said it is “fascinating to have evidence for both compassion and violence amongst Neanderthals.” One skeleton that survived a severe facial injury, met a likely fatal wound, and lay where other Neanderthal dead were later placed supports that pairing, no matter who held the spear.
Paper Notes
Limitations
Only part of the skeleton survived, and a flash flood moved some pieces, so the remains are incomplete. No jaw or facial bones were found, which leaves the cause of the facial injury uncertain. One molar likely belongs to another person, sex could not be estimated, and the bone alone cannot show whether the shoulder wound came from a hunting accident or violence. The paper does not state that the wound was an intended kill shot, that it is the earliest such case, or how long the individual survived the facial injury; it says only that the damaged tooth stayed in use for some time. Those points come from the press release. The wooden spear interpretation is indirect, based on comparison with experiments by other research teams rather than a recovered weapon, and the authors note that ongoing experimental work is testing whether the hole’s features could result from different impact forces. Whether Shanidar 6 and 8, found in 1960, are the same people as Shanidar Z, A or B is unresolved. Shanidar A’s tie to the burial cluster rests on position and orientation, not on a dug grave.
Funding and Disclosures
Funding came from the John Templeton Foundation, the Leverhulme Trust, the Rust Family Foundation, the British Academy/Leverhulme Trust, the McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research and Newnham College at the University of Cambridge, the Society of Antiquaries, the Wenner-Gren Foundation, the British Academy, and the Leakey Foundation. Individual co-authors received additional funding, including a British Academy Visiting Fellowship and a European Research Council grant, as listed in the paper. Micro-CT scanning was supported by a UKRI Arts and Humanities Research Council grant. The authors declare no competing interests.
Publication Details
Title: “Evidence for funerary behaviour and lethal trauma in a new Neanderthal individual from Shanidar Cave.” Authors: Emma Pomeroy (corresponding author), Christopher O. Hunt, Lucía López-Polín, Nohemi Sala, Ana Pantoja Pérez, James Holman, Jessica Twyman, Paul Bennett, Tim Reynolds, Ross Lane, Duncan Pirrie, and Graeme Barker, representing the University of Cambridge, Liverpool John Moores University, the Institut Català de Paleoecologia Humana i Evolució Social, Universitat Rovira i Virgili, the Centro Nacional de Investigación sobre la Evolución Humana, Canterbury Archaeological Trust, Birkbeck, University of London, and Helford Geoscience LLP. Journal: Scientific Reports, 2026, volume 16, article number 30042. Received August 3, 2026; accepted August 26, 2026; published online October 15, 2026. DOI: 10.1038/s41598-026-69193-z. Quotations from Pomeroy and Barker come from the study’s press release; “cannot be known” is quoted from the paper.
