Archaeologists unveil face of Neanderthal woman 75,000 years after she died: "High stakes 3D jigsaw puzzle" (2025)

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A British team of archaeologists on Thursday revealed the reconstructed face of a 75,000-year-old Neanderthal woman, as researchers reappraise the perception of the species as brutish and unsophisticated.

Named Shanidar Z after the cave in Iraqi Kurdistan where her skull was found in 2018, the latest discovery has led experts to probe the mystery of the forty-something Neanderthal woman laid to rest in a sleeping position beneath a huge vertical stone marker.

The lower part of her skeleton is believed to have been excavated in 1960 during groundbreaking excavations by American archaeologist Ralph Solecki in which he found the remains of at least 10 Neanderthals.

"I think she can help us connect with who they were," said Dr. Emma Pomeroy, a palaeo-anthropologist onthe project from the University of Cambridge.

Archaeologists unveil face of Neanderthal woman 75,000 years after she died: "High stakes 3D jigsaw puzzle" (1)

"It's extremely exciting and a massive privilege actually to be able to work with the remains of any individual but especially one as special as her," she told BBC News.

Solecki's discovery of a cluster of bodies with one surrounded by clumps of ancient pollen led him to controversially argue that this was evidence of funerary rituals with the dead placed on a bed of flowers.

Political difficulties meant it took around five decades for a team from Cambridge and Liverpool John Moores universities to be allowed back to the site in the Zagros mountains of northern Iraq.

"Skull was as flat as a pizza"

The last Neanderthals mysteriously died out around 40,000 years ago, just a few thousand years after humans arrived.

Shanidar Z's skull -- thought to be the best preserved Neanderthal find this century -- had been flattened to a thickness of 0.7 inches, possibly by a rockfall relatively soon after she died.

Professor Graeme Barker from Cambridge's McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research, told the BBC the "skull was as flat as a pizza, basically."

Archaeologists unveil face of Neanderthal woman 75,000 years after she died: "High stakes 3D jigsaw puzzle" (2)

"It's a remarkable journey to go from that to what you see now," Barker said. "As an archaeologist, you can sometimes get blasé about what you're doing. But every now and then you are brought up short by the fact you are touching the past. We forget just what an extraordinary thing it is."

Shanidar Z is the fifth body to be identified in the cluster buried over a period of at least several hundred years right behind the rock in the center of the cave.

Archaeologists believe the stone was used as an identifier to allow itinerant Neanderthals to return to the same spot to bury their dead.

Latest research by team member Professor Chris Hunt of John Moores now suggests the pollen that gave rise to Solecki's contentious "flower burial" theory might in fact have come from bees burrowing into the cave floor.

But Hunt said there was still evidence -- such as the remains of a partially paralyzed Neanderthal found by Solecki -- that the species were more empathetic than previously thought.

"There's been this huge reappraisal which was actually started by Ralph Solecki in this cave with 'Shanidar 1' with his withered arm and his arthritis and his deafness who must have been looked after. That tells us there was compassion," he said.

The positioning of the bodies in the cluster in the same spot, in the same position and facing in the same direction implied "tradition" and the "passing of knowledge between generations," he said.

"Exciting" and "terrifying" discovery

"It looks much more like purposeful behavior that you wouldn't associate with the text book stories about Neanderthals which is that their lives were nasty, brutish and short," he added.

Pomeroy, the Cambridge palaeo-anthropologist who uncovered Shanidar Z, said finding her skull and upper body had been both "exciting" and "terrifying."

The skeleton and the surrounding sediment had to be strengthened in situ with a glue-like consolidant before being removed in dozens of small foil-wrapped blocks.

Lead conservator Lucia Lopez-Polin then pieced together the over 200 bits of skull as the first step in the facial reconstruction for the just-released Netflix documentary "Secrets of the Neanderthals."

Pomeroy said the task had been like a "high stakes 3D jigsaw puzzle" especially as the fragments were very soft "similar in consistency to a biscuit dunked in tea".

The rebuilt skull was then 3D-printed allowing palaeo-artists and identical twins Adrie and Alfons Kennis in The Netherlands to complete the reconstruction with layers of fabricated muscle and skin for the documentary, which was produced by the BBC Studios Science Unit.

Pomeroy said Neanderthal skulls looked very different to those of humans "with huge brow ridges and lack of chins."

But she said the recreated face "suggests those differences were not so stark in life," highlighting the interbreeding between Neanderthals and humans "to the extent that almost everyone alive today still has Neanderthal DNA."

The BBC reported that the researchers are confident the Neanderthal is a female. Because no pelvic bones were recovered, archaeologists relied on certain dominant proteins found in the tooth enamel that are associated with female genetics. The slight stature of the skeleton also supports the interpretation.

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Archaeologists unveil face of Neanderthal woman 75,000 years after she died: "High stakes 3D jigsaw puzzle" (2025)

FAQs

Did scientists reveal the face of Neanderthal who lived 75000 years ago? ›

Archaeologists unveil face of Neanderthal woman 75,000 years after she died: "High stakes 3D jigsaw puzzle" A British team of archaeologists on Thursday revealed the reconstructed face of a 75,000-year-old Neanderthal woman, as researchers reappraise the perception of the species as brutish and unsophisticated.

Who was the Neanderthal woman 75000 years old? ›

From a flaky skull, found “as flat as a pizza” on a cave floor in northern Iraq, the face of a 75,000-year-old Neanderthal woman named “Shanidar Z” has been reconstructed. With her calm and considered expression, Shanidar Z looks like a thoughtful, approachable, even kindly middle-aged woman.

Was the face of 75000 year old Neanderthal woman recreated after being dug up from Iraqi cave? ›

The face of a 75,000-year-old Neanderthal woman has been recreated by a team of archeologists from the University of Cambridge after they excavated her body in 2018. The rare discovery of the Neanderthal skull came from an Iraqi cave where the species was known to lay their dead to rest.

What did people look like 75000 years ago? ›

“The skulls of Neanderthals and humans look very different” to ours, Emma Pomeroy, a paleoanthropologist at Cambridge, said in the report. “Neanderthal skulls have huge brow ridges and lack chins, with a projecting midface that results in more prominent noses.

How old was Shanidar Z when she died? ›

In the meantime, researchers also analyzed the remains for clues about Shanidar Z's identity. They used tooth enamel proteins and the size of her bones to determine her sex, and studied her teeth to determine her age—she was likely in her mid-40s, possibly even older.

Did humans get white skin from Neanderthal? ›

Though Neanderthals who lived further south may have had darker skin, just like us. There's some evidence that the gene for lighter skin may have actually come into homo sapiens from interbreeding with Neanderthals.

Which modern human has the highest Neanderthal DNA? ›

Approximately 20 percent of Neanderthal DNA survives in modern humans; however, a single human has an average of around 2% Neanderthal DNA overall with some countries and backgrounds having a maximum of 3% per human.

Were Neanderthals alive 10,000 years ago? ›

The earliest known examples of Neanderthal-like fossils are around 430,000 years old. The best-known Neanderthals lived between about 130,000 and 40,000 years ago, after which all physical evidence of them vanishes.

How many Neanderthal bodies have been found? ›

Remains of more than 300 European Neanderthals have been found. This is a list of the most notable.

Do many humans alive today have traces of Neanderthal DNA? ›

But some Neanderthal DNA helped modern humans survive and reproduce, and thus it has lingered in our genomes. Nowadays, Neanderthal DNA occupies, on average, 2% of the genomes of people outside Africa.

Did Neanderthals have kids with humans? ›

However, in 2016 researchers published a new set of Neanderthal DNA sequences from Altai Cave in Siberia, as well as from Spain and Croatia, that show evidence of human-Neanderthal interbreeding as far back as 100,000 years ago -- farther back than many previous estimates of humans' migration out of Africa (Kuhlwilm et ...

Who was the tallest Neanderthal? ›

It was discovered at Amud in Israel by Hisashi Suzuki in July 1961, who described it as male. With an estimated height of 1.78 m (5 ft 10 in), it is considerably taller than any other known Neanderthal, and its skull has by far the largest cranial capacity (1736-1740 cm3) of any human skull in the fossil record.

Did Neanderthals marry humans? ›

But in recent years, we've learned that Neanderthals and humans mated at multiple points. Not only did they mate, but obviously those offspring went on to have children such that our DNA has their DNA in it.

What was the lifespan of a Neanderthal? ›

In Neanderthal paleodemographic death distributions by age, very few adults are older than 40, while the promise of potential maximum longevity implied by the quasi-biological continuum of mammals points to much more.

Did humans ate Neanderthals? ›

Rozzi believes the jawbone provides crucial evidence that humans attacked Neanderthals, and sometimes killed them, bringing back their bodies to caves to eat or to use their skulls or teeth as trophies.

What killed off the Neanderthals? ›

Hypotheses on the causes of the extinction include violence, transmission of diseases from modern humans which Neanderthals had no immunity to, competitive replacement, extinction by interbreeding with early modern human populations, natural catastrophes, climate change and inbreeding depression.

What will humans look like in 3000? ›

Humans in the year 3000 will have a larger skull but, at the same time, a very small brain. "It's possible that we will develop thicker skulls, but if a scientific theory is to be believed, technology can also change the size of our brains," they write.

Were humans alive 600000 years ago? ›

Homo heidelbergensis

sapiens, a unique branch of the genus Homo, called H. heidelbergensis, appeared in Europe, northwestern Africa, and possibly Asia. Named after the location in Germany where the first remains were found, the species lived from 600,000 to 200,000 years ago.

What did humans look like 10,000 years? ›

Yes, they looked a lot like modern humans and were closely related to us, but, as you might expect, had some relatively minor genetic differences. Europeans, for example, seem to have mostly been darker skinned than today, and some other traits, like adult milk tolerance, had not yet spread through populations.

Did Neanderthals believe in God? ›

Ultimately, Neanderthal religion is speculative, and hard evidence for religious practice exists only amongst Upper Paleolithic H. s. sapiens.

Are Neanderthals found today? ›

Most humans alive today can trace a very small percentage of their DNA to Neanderthals — a result of prehistoric sexual encounters between our ancestors and the now-extinct Stone Age hominins before the latter disappeared around 40,000 years ago.

Did Neanderthals bury their dead before humans? ›

Confirming that careful burials existed among early humans at least 50,000 years ago, the companions of the Neanderthal took great care to dig him a grave and protect his body from scavengers, report the study authors in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Which part of the 75000 year old skeleton did the team examine to establish it belonged to a woman? ›

New analysis strongly suggests that Shanidar Z was an older female, perhaps in her mid-forties according to researchers – a significant age to reach so deep in prehistory. Without pelvic bones, the team relied on sequencing tooth enamel proteins to determine her sex.

Were there Neanderthals 10,000 years ago? ›

The earliest known examples of Neanderthal-like fossils are around 430,000 years old. The best-known Neanderthals lived between about 130,000 and 40,000 years ago, after which all physical evidence of them vanishes.

What was the Neanderthal face condition? ›

With pronounced brow ridges and no chins, the skulls of Neanderthals look different from those of our own species, Homo sapiens, said Dr. Emma Pomeroy, a paleoanthropologist and associate professor with the University of Cambridge's department of archaeology who unearthed the skeleton and appears in the new film.

How long was the lifespan of a Neanderthal? ›

Key points. DNA methylation allows estimation of extinct animals' lifespans, including a 60-year life for woolly mammoths. Neanderthals had a natural lifespan of 37.8 years, reflecting early human survival limits.

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