Neanderthal shoulder blade preserves 75,000-year-old spear wound

A 15-mm beveled hole in the left scapula of Shanidar A, a Neanderthal who died around 75,000 years ago, suggests a wooden spear pierced the chest through a lung and major arteries. Cambridge-led researchers recovered the remains in 2020 at Shanidar Cave in Iraqi Kurdistan; the find may be the earliest evidence of lethal wooden-spear violence in the human lineage.

• The 15-mm beveled hole is characteristic of an exit wound
• Shanidar A died around age 45 after surviving a split tooth
• The spear entered from above, passing through a lung and arteries
• Hole shape points to sharpened wood rather than a flint tip