The remains of a Neanderthal recently discovered in a cave in Iraq demonstrate the excruciating brutality of life in the Palaeolithic. The Neanderthal had a severely smashed but healed jaw and a spear hole straight through their shoulder, which is evidence of a likely fatal injury.

However, given that survival after such a massive, earlier dental injury would have been possible only with long-term care, the remarkable find may also provide early evidence of compassion, says at the University of Cambridge.

鈥淲e sometime romanticise hunter-gatherer or pre-agriculture lifestyles as peaceful and close to the natural world, or at the other extreme, we think of life in the Palaeolithic as [Thomas] Hobbes described it,鈥� says Pomeroy. In 1651, the political philosopher Hobbes wrote about life in ungoverned societies as 鈥渟olitary, poore, nasty, brutish, and short鈥�. 鈥淏ut it鈥檚 not that simple, and both are extreme stereotypes,鈥� she says.

The 75,000-year-old partial skeleton, known as Shanidar A, was recovered in 2019 and 2022 from the Shanidar cave in northern Iraq and consists of a largely complete right hand, two left ribs, a right rib fragment, a left scapula and six teeth. At least five Neanderthal individuals have been found at Shanidar since it was first excavated in the 1950s, and the way they were placed in the ground is often seen as evidence that these ancient humans buried some of their dead.

While the sex of Shanidar A couldn鈥檛 be determined, the wear on the teeth suggested that the remains were those of an individual who lived to be about 45 years old 鈥� a long life by Neanderthal standards.

They must have been hit very hard in the face at some point in their life, which made one of their bottom front teeth split in half and also probably fractured their jaw, says Pomeroy.

Subscriber-only newsletter

Sign up to Our Human Story

Sign up to newsletter

The broken edge of the tooth became covered in hardened plaque, showing they continued living afterwards without that part of the tooth.

But, says Pomeroy, the person must have been in terrible pain. Although there is evidence from other archaeological sites that Neanderthals used mild, natural painkillers, 鈥淚 don鈥檛 think they would have touched this pain鈥�, she says.

Such a dental injury would have also made it difficult to eat, drink or talk, and would almost certainly have required a period of intensive care from the individual鈥檚 group, she says.

鈥淭he half tooth that remained in their mouth must have stuck out through the bone and the gums, meaning the hardened plaque, known as calculus, formed all over the top and bottom of the tooth,鈥� says Pomeroy.

She says the force of the blow also made the teeth next to the broken one rotate slightly.

Shanidar A鈥檚 scapula, or shoulder blade, had also survived 鈥� and the team were stunned to see that it carried a perfectly round hole that was probably made by a wooden spear rather than a stone-tipped weapon.

The location of bone fragments also recovered from Shanidar A鈥檚 remains indicate that the spear entered the individual鈥檚 body on the left-hand side while they were facing forward.

The team says such an injury would have 鈥減enetrated all the way through the chest, including the lungs and potentially major blood vessels, likely leading to a rapid death鈥�.

What is unknown is whether the injury was sustained while hunting or through violence.

, at the Catalan Institute of Human Paleoecology and Social Evolution in Spain, wasn鈥檛 part of the team but recently helped discover the remains of wooden Neanderthal spears at site called Abric Roman铆 near Barcelona.

She says Neanderthals, like us, were complex beings, capable of very different behaviours depending on the circumstances.

鈥淲hat I find most striking about Shanidar is how it brings together two seemingly opposite sides of human behaviour,鈥� says Saladi茅. 鈥淲e have evidence of lethal violence, but also evidence of care for injured individuals and complex funerary practices.鈥�

Wooden tools, weapons, building materials and domestic items discovered in a Spanish cave challenge the assumption that Neanderthals鈥� technological life was based primarily on stone.

The finds have given an unprecedented glimpse into everyday Neanderthal life and are a rare opportunity to recover part of their missing world, says at the Catalan Institute of Human Paleoecology and Social Evolution in Spain.

鈥淣eanderthal technology was not only made of stone; it was also made of wood,鈥� he says.

鈥淭he archaeological record gives us a very biased picture of prehistoric technology. We see the stone because it survives, while a huge part of their material culture has simply disappeared.鈥�

Vallverd煤 and his colleagues have now completed the first systematic review of nearly 600 wooden objects, all between 40,000 and 62,000 years old.

The finds have been collected by generations of archaeologists since the 1980s, excavated at a rock shelter site called Abric Roman铆 near Barcelona. They include timber imprints in travertine 鈥� a rock rich in calcium carbonate that precipitates out of water in certain environments. The rock preserves the patterns of the wood grain even though the timber long ago rotted away. Charred artefacts and actual preserved timber have also been found at the site.

The researchers鈥� first job was to determine exactly which pieces were used or made by Neanderthals. Only 13 qualified. Most of the remainder consist of trunks, branches, twigs, roots and firewood accumulations.

, also at the Catalan Institute, says the researchers have been surprised at how 鈥渃omplex Neanderthal woodworking could be, and how well they understood the properties of wood鈥�, with the two spears being especially striking to her.

鈥淧roducing long, straight shafts and shaping them deliberately into pointed weapons required planning, skill and careful selection of the raw material,鈥� says Chac贸n.

The technological behaviours preserved at Abric Roman铆 are comparable to those documented for Homo sapiens, she says.

Other finds included a mysterious wooden tripod, as well as timber trays reminiscent, in terms of likely utility, of the coolamons traditionally used by Indigenous Australians to carry food and water. Some of the wooden objects appear to be structural poles.

But perhaps the item that has most surprised the team is a 鈥渃lub-like鈥� object that has no precedent from any other palaeolithic site.

, also at the Catalan Institute, says the club-like object is 鈥渘ot simply a stick with a thicker end鈥�.

鈥淭here is a distinct narrow handle and an enlarged, asymmetrical head, giving the object a much more complex and deliberate form,鈥� she says. 鈥淭his particular configuration is what we have not been able to find a convincing parallel for in the prehistoric record.鈥�

Vallverd煤 says the site shows that wood was a normal and important part of Neanderthals鈥� everyday life.

鈥淲e have evidence of woodworking across many archaeological levels and over thousands of years, and the objects are associated with very different activities: hunting, domestic tasks, containers and the organisation of living spaces,鈥� he says.

at the Natural History Museum in London says the archaeological record of wooden artefacts has been 鈥渟everely constrained鈥� by the generally poor preservation of organic materials.

The finds reveal a much wider technological repertoire of woodworking skills, he says.

The story of the first human tool: the humble container

An analysis of ancient human artefacts finds that the container, a simple but critical tool, may have originated 500,000 years ago. Columnist Michael Marshall explores how slings, ostrich eggs and wooden trays helped our ancestors survive

鈥淭his is of course evidence from only one site, in one area, and one time span,鈥� says Stringer, 鈥渟o it鈥檚 just the tip of the iceberg in terms of a whole and mostly hidden technology that ran in parallel with the much better-known stone tools of the Palaeolithic.鈥�

鈥淲ood, plant fibres, hides, bone and other organic materials must have been central to daily life, but they normally disappear,鈥� says , also at the Catalan Institute. 鈥淪o when a site like Abric Roman铆 preserves wooden imprints and charred wooden objects, it is almost like suddenly seeing the missing half of the toolkit.鈥�

at Kyoto University in Japan describes the wooden objects as 鈥渞emarkable鈥�.

鈥淧reserved organic materials are truly rare, and they reveal a 鈥榟idden鈥� aspect of Neanderthals that we have been missing,鈥� says Morimoto.

How do you prove that 500-year-old bones dug up in a parking lot are the long-lost remains of one of Britain鈥檚 most infamous kings?

In our latest video, Professor Turi King, a leading genetic scientist and television expert, gives us the inside track on the remarkable discovery of King Richard III. She reveals how the DNA evidence sparked a royal controversy and how DNA fingerprinting techniques have transformed criminal investigations.

From identifying the Golden State Killer to problems with the Amanda Knox investigation, King discusses a wide range of cases, including what Adolf Hitler鈥檚 DNA can and cannot tell us about the notorious dictator.