Neanderthal shoulder blade pierced by wooden spear 75,000 years ago, researchers say

A spear wound in the shoulder blade

Archaeologists from the University of Cambridge describe a 15 mm round hole in the left shoulder blade of a Neanderthal who died about 75,000 years ago, and they link it to a sharpened wooden spear. The bones came from Shanidar cave in Iraqi Kurdistan, roughly 105 kilometres northeast of Mosul. The study was published in Scientific Reports on Thursday, 15 October 2026. The individual, known as Shanidar A, was about 45 years old, which would be very old by Neanderthal standards, and the sex has not been determined. Only part of the skeleton survived: a nearly complete right hand, the left shoulder blade, several ribs and six front teeth.

How the spear passed through the body

According to the team's reconstruction, the spear entered the left side of the chest from the front. It probably damaged a lung and large blood vessels before breaking through the left shoulder blade, a path the researchers say would have caused a quick death. Fragments displaced by the weapon lay in a pattern pointing to a downward trajectory. The edge of the opening is beveled, a feature the archaeologists link to an exit wound. Other tools, such as a flint or stone point, would have left a flat or angled hole, which is why the team favors wood. Several fragments were fitted back together along faint ridges where muscles once attached, allowing the team to rebuild part of the opening.

The fatal strike may have been an intended heart shot,

Emma Pomeroy, the study's lead author, told BBC News that the strike may have been aimed at the heart.

Injuries before the death

Reports say the same skeleton shows a facial injury that occurred at least a year before the man died. One report links a broken tooth to a blow, and suggests the man lived with pain that made eating and speaking difficult. It also argues that he would have needed help from his group to survive. These points are interpretations drawn from the bones rather than direct observations of the events. The injuries show that he lived for a time after being badly hurt.

Accident or attack

The researchers have not established whether the spear was thrown in an attack or during a hunt. Pomeroy said the location and force of the wound fit a targeted attack on the heart, but simulations cited in one report also fit a hunting accident. The sources do not say who threw the spear or why. The question of whether this was a killing remains open.

Violence in the Neanderthal record

The BBC places the study within a growing body of evidence that Neanderthal groups experienced more violence than previously thought. Neanderthals went extinct around 40,000 years ago and lived across Europe and western and central Asia. Shanidar cave has been excavated since the 1950s, when US archaeologist Ralph Solecki began work there. Earlier finds from the cave include Shanidar 3, a man who died violently about 40,000 years ago from a thrown weapon, and Shanidar 1, who had a paralysed arm, arthritis and partial blindness and was cared for by others.