New Neanderthal remains associated with the ‘flower burial’ at Shanidar Cave
Accepted version
Peer-reviewed
Repository URI
Repository DOI
Change log
Authors
Pomeroy, Emma https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6251-2165
Bennett, Paul
Hunt, Chris
Reynolds, Tim
Farr, Lucy
Abstract
Shanidar Cave in Iraqi Kurdistan became an iconic Palaeolithic site following Ralph Solecki's mid twentieth-century discovery of Neanderthal remains. Solecki argued that some of these individuals had died in rockfalls and—controversially—that others were interred with formal burial rites, including one with flowers. Recent excavations have revealed the articulated upper body of an adult Neanderthal located close to the ‘flower burial’ location—the first articulated Neanderthal discovered in over 25 years. Stratigraphic evidence suggests that the individual was intentionally buried. This new find offers the rare opportunity to investigate Neanderthal mortuary practices utilising modern archaeological techniques.
Description
Keywords
Iraqi Kurdistan, Shanidar, Palaeolithic, Neanderthal, mortuary practice
Journal Title
Antiquity
Conference Name
Journal ISSN
0003-598X
1745-1744
1745-1744
Volume Title
94
Publisher
Cambridge University Press
Publisher DOI
Rights
All rights reserved
Sponsorship
Leverhulme Trust (Research Grant RPG-2013-105), the Rust Family Foundation, the British Academy, the Wenner-Gren Foundation, the Society of Antiquaries, the McDonald Institute of Archaeological Research at the University of Cambridge and the Natural Environment Research Council’s Oxford Radiocarbon Dating Facility (grant NF/2016/2/14). The ongoing dating program is supported by the European Research Council under the European Union's Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/2007-2013) / ERC grant agreement number 324139 “PalaeoChron” awarded to Professor Tom Higham, University of Oxford