Bones from Iraqi cave hint at violence and compassion in Neanderthals

Neanderthal had wound from apparent fatal spear attack Interpersonal violence seen as most likely scenario Same individual suffered earlier nonfatal facial injury Partial skeleton found in Iraq's Kurdistan region By Will Dunham Oct 15 (Reuters) — The bones of a Neanderthal from a cave in Iraq's Kurdistan region are offering evidence of both violence and compassion in the closest evolutionary cousins of our species, exhibiting a wound apparently from a fatal spear attack as well as signs of an earlier nonfatal injury that may have elicited kindly care. Researchers have discovered at Shanidar Cave in the Zagros Mountains of northern Iraq a partial skeleton of a Neanderthal, aged in the mid-40s, that included a left shoulder blade, or scapula, with a circular hole six-tenths of an inch (15 mm) wide indicative of a deeply penetrating stab. The bones of this individual, who they call Shanidar A, were unearthed from under about 25 feet (7.5 meters) of rocks and sediment inside the cave and date to about 75,000 years ago. The researchers were unable to determine Shanidar A's sex. The researchers said the injury's shape suggests it was caused by a forceful thrust using a sharpened wooden s