Neanderthals capable of both violence and care, bones from Iraqi cave suggest

Neanderthals were not the unintelligent cave dwellers of popular imagination, but may have been capable of showing both violence and care, researchers who have discovered bones dating back 75,000 years have said.

The claim follows the discovery of a partial skeleton of a Neanderthal, our closest ancient relatives, in a cave in Iraq, including a left ​shoulder blade, some ribs, a nearly complete right hand and seven teeth.

The shoulder blade has a 1.5cm wound, suggestive of a deeply penetrating stab possibly from a forceful thrust by a sharpened wooden spear, a type of weapon Neanderthals are known to have used.

The individual, who has been named Shanidar A, was under about 25 feet (7.5m) of rocks and sediment inside the cave in the Zagros Mountains and dates ​to about 75,000 years ago.

Emma Pomeroy, a biological anthropologist from Cambridge University, lead author of the report, said the spear "would have gone through the skin and major muscles, especially the pectoralis, as well as the ribcage and muscles between the ribs, and the lung".

Ms Pomeroy said the location of the injury "could be like the kind of 'heart shot' hunters use to kill animals quickly by puncturing the heart".

Interpersonal violence, either from members of the same Neanderthal group or rival groups, is the likeliest explanation, University of Cambridge archaeologist Graeme Barker, who has led Shanidar Cave excavations since 2015, said.

Researchers, who placed Shanidar A's age in the mid-40s, were unable to determine their gender.

Shanidar A, who was one of five Neanderthals, four adults and one infant whose bodies were discovered in the cave, had survived a brutal injury at least a year before death.

Their teeth showed evidence of a blow to the face resulting in front teeth being smashed and lost. One tooth was split, with half remaining rotated in the mouth and others pushed out of position.

Ms 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".

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Ms Pomeroy said the bones provide evidence "of two contrasting facets of human nature - care and violence - ​juxtaposed in the same individual.

"We see evidence all around us today that violence and care are both aspects of how we humans behave, and we see this here in Shanidar A, too.

"Neanderthals were like us in many respects, both the good and the ‌bad, and this find really highlights that, going against stereotypes of ​Neanderthals as unintelligent, uncaring cavemen and cavewomen."

Neanderthals lived as hunter-gatherers and inhabited Eurasia from the Atlantic coast to the Ural Mountains from about 400,000 years ago until a bit after 40,000 years ago.

(c) Sky News 2026: Neanderthals capable of both violence and care, bones from Iraqi cave suggest