CSI Paleo: Murder Most Ancient
A skull found in Spain with two identical wounds is evidence of a murder nearly half-a-million years old.
A 430,000-year-old murder
The oldest known murder victim has been discovered by a team including Dr. Rolf Quam, a paleo-anthropologist from Binghamton University in New York.
The victim was one of 28 skeletons of pre-Neanderthal people found in a Spanish cave, known as the "pit of bones", and all date back more than 400,000 years. The cause of death for most of the individuals is not known, but one skull had two very similar punctures through the bone, just above the left eye, which were likely made by a spear or hand axe.
Not only is this the first murder in the fossil record, but Dr. Quam and his colleagues say that the placing of dead bodies in this cave is the first example of culturally significant funerary practices known in history.
Related Links
- Paper in PLoS One
- Release from PLoS
- ScienceNews article (sub required)
- National Geographic article