This is cranium 17. It belonged to a hominin of unknown age and sex but they
were certainly on the Neandertal side of our family tree probably some sort of
proto Neanderthal. It was one of 28 hominids excavated from the Sima de los
huesos, the pit of bones, in the Atapuerca
mountains of northern Spain. Archaeologists believe it to be about
four hundred and thirty thousand years old. Now, you will have to forgive my
advanced medical terminology here but you can clearly see that this person
received a rather severe bosh on the noggin. There are many things that can
cause that though, so why do some archaeologists believe it to be a murder
or at least a lethal attack? Well, for a start the large hole in the skull was
seemingly not created postmortem nor does it show any signs of healing. So,
it's very likely that this blow was fatal. The fracture is composed of two
impacts that struck at slightly different angles. Two separate blows
suggests that it was probably deliberate. The injuries were probably caused by the
same object as they are so similar in size and shape. They both have similar
notches above the fracture. We can't tell exactly what caused it but a likely
candidate is probably a hand axe. Whenever possible humans try to break
our fall if we slip. Therefore, frontal and facial wounds like
the one on cranium 17 are more likely the result of an intentional attack. Also,
accidental blows to the head tend to produce thin, linear fractures rather
than these large, wide, deep depressions that have really punctured the skull.
Most people are right-handed. As a result, deliberate injuries are more
common on the left hand side of the face which is exactly where the owner of
cranium 17 was struck. Interestingly, the other hominids at the sima show signs of
right handedness. Whether these early Neanderthals thought of killing
another human as more significant than killing another animal, I don't know. I
don't think we can answer that. I personally believe that they would
have but that's just my own personal speculation. Now, obviously we weren't
there, I wasn't there. The owner of cranium 17 may not have been murdered. They
could have fallen into the pit. It is 13 meters deep that could certainly kill
you. But two almost identical injuries from a fall, bouncing onto the same
object? It's not so likely. Perhaps it was a
hunting accident? Maybe but again two blows both powerful
enough to smash the skull like that, that seems like a deliberate act. It is
certainly not likely that this person could have done that to themselves,
whether deliberately or accidentally. One of these blows alone would be enough to
kill someone it would definitely knock you out
anyway, preventing you from doing that second strike.
Hey everyone, was the owner of cranium 17 murdered? I don't know. Is it reasonable
to think that they were? Absolutely, and in archaeology when we're looking over
four hundred thousand years into the past, basically that's about as
definitive as we can get. That's all I've got to say about cranium 17. I'm gonna
finish up this barbecue, here. Thank you for watching, thank you for subscribing,
and thank you to my patrons for supporting me in these crisp filled
archaeological adventures. See ya!