A team of archaeologists in England has revealed the reconstructed face of a Neanderthal woman who lived 75,000 years ago.
The Neanderthal woman, named Shanidar Z, is named after the cave in Kurdistan, Iraq, where her skull was discovered in 2018. This latest finding helps experts learn more about the mystery surrounding the approximately 40-year-old Neanderthal woman who was buried in a sleeping position beneath a massive stone.
The skull and reconstructed face of a Neanderthal woman named Shanidar Z, who lived 75,000 years ago. (Photo: AFP).
The skeletal remains were excavated in 1960 during a dig led by American archaeologist Ralph Solecki, who discovered the remains of at least 10 Neanderthals.
Among the bodies he found, one was surrounded by clusters of ancient pollen. This led him to propose a controversial argument about burial rituals on flower beds.
Due to political difficulties, it was almost 50 years later that a team from the University of Cambridge and Liverpool John Moores University could return to the site in the Zagros Mountains of northern Iraq.
Neanderthals mysteriously went extinct around 40,000 years ago. The skull of Shanidar Z—the best-preserved Neanderthal find of this century—is 2 cm thick and shows signs of being flattened, possibly due to being struck by a falling rock after her death.
Professor Graeme Barker from the McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research at the University of Cambridge, who led the excavation at Shanidar Cave, stated: “We want to try to date the graves… to use this site to help determine the reasons for Neanderthal extinction.”
Shanidar Z is the fifth identified body in the group of remains buried at least a few hundred years after the stone in the center of the cave. Archaeologists believe the stone was used as a landmark to help Neanderthals return to the same location to bury the dead.
Professor Chris Hunt from Liverpool John Moores University suggested that buriing bodies in the same location may have been “a tradition” and “a means of knowledge transmission between generations” for Neanderthals.
Associate Professor Emma Pomeroy poses with the skull and reconstructed face of a Neanderthal woman who lived 75,000 years ago at the University of Cambridge, England. (Photo: AFP).
Ancient anthropologist Emma Pomeroy at the University of Cambridge, who discovered Shanidar Z, described the finding of the skull and upper body of Shanidar Z as both “fascinating” and “horrifying.”
Upon discovery, the skeleton and the surrounding sediment of Shanidar Z had to be reinforced in place with adhesive before being wrapped in dozens of small blocks covered in foil. After that, the head of conservation, Lucia Lopez-Polin, had to piece together more than 200 skull fragments as the first step in reconstructing the woman’s face.
Pomeroy compared this task to a challenging 3D puzzle, especially since the skull pieces were very fragile and “had a consistency similar to a cookie dipped in tea.” The skull was rebuilt and later 3D printed. Paleontologists relied on this 3D printed skull to complete the facial reconstruction with layers of muscle and skin.
Pomeroy noted that the Neanderthal skull looks very different from that of modern humans “with massive brow ridges and no chin,” but “that difference is not so pronounced in life.” The associate professor emphasized the interbreeding between Neanderthals and modern humans “to the extent that most people alive today still carry Neanderthal DNA.”
