Archaeologists have been able to reconstruct the skull of a 75,000-year-old Neanderthal skeleton.
Researchers from the University of Cambridge and Liverpool John Moores unearthed the skull at the Shanidar Cave site, 500 miles north of Baghdad. Iraq.
As part of a new Netflix documentary, Secrets of the Neanderthals, were able to reconstruct the skull and recreate the face of the woman to whom it once belonged.
The skull was first found in 2018, where it had been flattened to about two centimeters thick.
It had been crushed, possibly by rockfalls, shortly after his death and further compacted by tens of thousands of years of sediment.
Archaeologists named the skeleton Shanidar Z.
The skull was remade from more than 200 bone fragments. Photo: PA
‘High Risk 3D Puzzle’
To recreate the skull they had to put together, by hand, more than 200 bone fragments.
Using sequencing of tooth enamel proteins, they were able to determine that the skeleton was likely a woman.
His teeth were also used to measure his age, believed to be around 40 years old, by examining the wear levels of some of his front teeth worn down to the roots.
Shanidar Z’s physique also suggests they were female, as they stood about five feet tall and had some of the smallest adult arm bones in the Neanderthal fossil records.
Dr Emma Pomeroy, a paleoanthropologist at Cambridge’s Department of Archaeology, described the reconstruction of Shanidar Z as a “high-stakes 3D puzzle”.
“Each skull fragment is gently cleaned while glue and consolidant are added back to stabilize the bone, which can be very soft, similar in consistency to a cookie dipped in tea,” he added.
“A single block can take fifteen days to process.”
Dr Emma Pomeroy with the skull of Shanidar Z. Photo: PA
They find pollen and evidence of food near the remains
The cave where Shanidar Z was found also housed the remains of 10 other Neanderthals, excavated more than 60 years ago.
Clumps of ancient pollen surround one of the skeletons, something researchers initially suggested indicates the dead were buried with flowers.
However, a study led by Professor Chris Hunt, from Liverpool John Moores University, came to the different conclusion that the pollen was left by bees burrowing into the cave floor.
Further investigation since Shanidar Z was found detected microscopic evidence of charred food in the nearby soil.
Charred fragments of seeds, nuts and wild grasses suggest that Neanderthals not only prepared and cooked food, but did so in the presence of their dead.
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Dr. Pomeroy: “Shanidar Z’s body was within arm’s reach of living people who were cooking with fire and eating.
“For these Neanderthals, there doesn’t seem to be such a clear separation between life and death.
“We can see that the Neanderthals are returning to a particular place to bury their dead.
“This could be decades or even thousands of years apart.
“Is it just a coincidence or is it intentional and if so, what brings them back?
“As an older woman, Shanidar Z would have been a repository of knowledge for her group, and here we are, 75,000 years later, still learning from her.”
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Shanidar Z Reconstruction
Removing Shanidar Z’s remains posed a difficult problem because of how delicate they were.
Archaeologists used a glue-like consolidant to strengthen the bones and surrounding sediments, before extracting Shanidar Z in small blocks wrapped in aluminum foil from under twenty-five feet of soil and rock.
Then, in the Cambridge lab, the researchers took micro-CT scans of each block before beginning the slow process of diluting the glue and using the scans to guide the removal of the bone fragments.
Once the skull was reconstructed, it was scanned and 3D printed to form the base of the reconstructed head.
The reconstruction itself was performed by world-renowned paleo artists and identical twins, Adrie and Alfons Kennis, who constructed layers of fabricated muscle and skin to create the face.