75,000-year-old Neanderthal fed soft food before murdered with a sharp spear in a possible ‘heart shot’, Cambridge study finds

A Neanderthal who died around 75,000 years ago in Iraqi Kurdistan may have been deliberately killed with a sharpened wooden spear. As per Cambridge archaeologists investigating it, this could be one of the earliest known cases of lethal conflict and violent death in prehistory.

The Neanderthal, known as Shanidar A, was found in Shanidar Cave in the Zagros Mountains in 2020. Researchers identified a 15-millimeter-wide circular hole in the Neanderthal’s left shoulder blade, which likely happened when a sharpened wooden spear that injured it in the chest passed through the body.

The spear and the consequent wound damaged the lung and major arteries before reaching the shoulder blade, and as per the researchers, the strike was an intended “heart shot” for a rapid death.


“All we can ever know about the end of this Neanderthal’s life is that it was violent, and came at the end of a wooden spear,” Professor Graeme Barker, Disney Professor of Archaeology Emeritus and director of the Shanidar Cave excavations, said in a statement in 2026.

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“Evidence of systematic violence is extremely rare in deep prehistory,” Barker continued, adding that most known evidence comes from settled farming communities thousands of years after hunter-gatherer societies such as Neanderthals. The findings were published on October 15 in the journal Scientific Reports.

A prehistoric killing

Researchers are convinced from the circular hole that it was indeed from an injury caused by sharpened wood, as a spear tip made of flint or stone would likely leave a flat or angular mark.

The team also found shards of bone that were displaced by the weapon. As per them, their position indicates that the spear entered from above at a downward angle. “It’s extraordinary to have a perfectly preserved scapula from 75,000 years ago. These bones are so thin you often don’t get complete scapulae from modern burials,” said Dr Emma Pomeroy, the study’s lead author from Cambridge’s Department of Archaeology.

“We were able to lift it out in one piece from under almost eight metres of rock and sediment,” she added.

As for who threw the spear, there are two possibilities: one is that the injury could have resulted from a hunting accident. “Animals such as mammoths may have been hunted up close with thrusting spears, so it’s easy to imagine lethal injuries,” Pomeroy said.

However, she said the wound may also mean deliberate violence. “The position of the wound and the force required to push it right through the Neanderthal’s body bear the hallmarks of an intended kill shot directed towards the heart,” she said.

Researchers said they cannot know for sure the circumstances of the death or whether modern humans were involved. The most straightforward explanation, they said, is violence between Neanderthals.

“The likeliest scenario to me is interpersonal violence, but whether within the Neanderthal group or between Neanderthal groups or with a Modern Human is impossible to say,” Barker said.

Evidence of care before violent death

Shanidar A was an adult who is believed to have died around age 45, and around a year before that he suffered “brutal facial injury” and possibly was taken care of. One lower incisor of the Neanderthal had been split lengthwise, with only half remaining. The surrounding teeth had also been rotated inward.

Researchers said the damage was likely caused by major blunt-force trauma to the front of the face. “Surviving a blow that splits a tooth in this fashion, then continuing to live and eat for a period of at least a year and maybe more, would have required care and support from other Neanderthals,” Pomeroy said.

She also said that after the facial injury, Shanidar A may have been given soft food, referring to earlier research on sediment from Shanidar Cave where traces of plant foods were being soaked before cooking.

“There’s no doubt that Shanidar A would have had difficulty communicating and been in absolute agony for a long period of time,” Pomeroy said, adding, “the remains of Shanidar A reflect the dual nature of so much of what we recognise as human. On the one hand, we have evidence of a terribly violent end. On the other, this was clearly an individual who was cared for during their lifetime.”

Barker said the remains offer evidence of both compassion and violence among Neanderthals, “our closest evolutionary cousins.”