Face of Neanderthal woman buried in Iraqi cave 75,000 years ago revealed

Archaeologists have reconstructed the human-like face of a Neanderthal woman who lived 75,000 years ago in a cave where the extinct species may have conducted unique funerary rituals.

Bone fragments of the Neanderthal woman named Shanidar Z were first unearthed in 2018 from a cave in Iraqi Kurdistan where the extinct human relatives may have repeatedly returned to lay their dead to rest.

Studies since the 1950s have shown that the Neanderthals buried their dead in the cave with funerary rituals such as laying them to rest on a bed of flowers.

In fact, evidence gathered from this cave site first suggested the Neanderthals were far more sophisticated than the primitive creatures many had assumed them to be based on their stocky frames and ape-like brows.

Although the species, which is thought to have died out 40,000 years ago, had skulls quite different from those of humans, the rebuilt face of the 40-something Neanderthal woman shows their appearance was human-like.

The findings are revealed in a new documentary, Secrets of the Neanderthals, produced by BBC and released on Netflix worldwide.

“Neanderthal skulls have huge brow ridges and lack chins, with a projecting midface that results in more prominent noses,” Emma Pomeroy, from Cambridge University’s archaeology department, said. “But the recreated face suggests those differences were not so stark in life.”

“It’s perhaps easier to see how interbreeding occurred between our species, to the extent that almost everyone alive today still has Neanderthal DNA,” Dr Pomeroy, who features in the new film, said.

The woman’s remains, including a skull flattened to around two centimetres thick, are some of the best preserved Neanderthal fossils found this century, researchers said.

Her head was found to have been crushed, possibly by rockfall soon after death, likely after the brain decomposed but before the skull filled with dirt.

After carefully exposing the remains, including her skeleton almost to the waist, Cambridge researchers used a glue-like consolidant to strengthen the bones and surrounding sediment.

They removed Shanidar Z in small foil-wrapped blocks from under seven and a half metres of soil and rock within the heart of the “flower funeral” cave.

Then, they pieced together over 200 bits of her skull to return it to its original shape, including her upper and lower jaws.

“It’s like a high-stakes 3D jigsaw puzzle. A single block can take over a fortnight to process,” Dr Pomeroy said.

The researchers surface-scanned the reconstructed skull and 3D-printed it, further adding layers of fabricated muscle and skin to reveal her face.

Skull of Shanidar Z that was used to reconstruct her face in a lab Cambridge University lab (Jamie Simonds)

Analysis of the dig suggested that Shanidar Z was laid to rest in a gully formed by running water that had been further hollowed out by hand to accommodate the body.

She had been leant against the side, with her left hand curled under her head, and a rock placed likely as a small cushion behind her head.

The woman’s fossil is the fifth to be found in a cluster of bodies buried at a similar time in the same location, behind a two-metre-tall vertical rock at the centre of the cave.

The entrance to Shanidar Cave in the Zagros mountains of northern Iraq (Graeme Barker)

The researchers also found traces of charred food, including carbonised bits of wild seeds and nuts in the soil around the body cluster, suggesting the Neanderthals may have prepared food in the presence of their dead.

“The body of Shanidar Z was within arm’s reach of living individuals cooking with fire and eating. For these Neanderthals, there does not appear to be that clear separation between life and death,” Dr Pomeroy said.

“Our discoveries show that the Shanidar Neanderthals may have been thinking about death and its aftermath in ways not so very different from their closest evolutionary cousins, ourselves,” archaeologist Graeme Barker, who led the excavations at the cave, said.

The cave may have served as a landmark for the Neanderthals as it appears to have been a unique site for repeated burials, the researchers said.

“We can see that Neanderthals are coming back to one particular spot to bury their dead. This could be decades or even thousands of years apart,” Dr Pomeroy said. “Is it just a coincidence, or is it intentional, and if so what brings them back?”

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