Located in the Atapuerca Mountains of Spain, the cave is known as Sima de los Huesos, or “Pit of Bones.” Deep inside, among many other ancient humans remains, scientists revealed the fragments of a skull belonging to an early Neanderthal ancestor who lived around 430,000 years ago, during the Middle Pleistocene epoch. After piecing the skull together, scientists found two fractures of similar size and shape above the left eye, which they have determined were the result of blunt-force trauma suffered near the time of death. As a result of this discovery, along with research and examination, they believe they have stumbled upon evidence of the world’s first murder.
Amongst research that was conducted back in 2013, questions began to surface when …show more content…
The determination of whether the individual was a male or female was inconclusive. However, scientists revealed that the skulls did contain 2 cranial fractures on the left side of the forehead above the eye, in which both fractures measured at nearly one-inch wide.
Further examinations indicated that both fractures to the skull had no time to heal prior to death, or that these injuries could have been a result of environmental damages. “Based on the similarities in shape and size of both the wounds, we believe they are the result of repeated blows with the same object and inflicted by another individual, perhaps in a face-to-face encounter (S. Pruitt, 2015).”
Researchers found that within time, as well as further research, many believed that the injuries examined later concluded that the evidence that was collected showed that violence played a large role in the death of some of the skeletal findings. According to their findings, “the skull’s owner was likely bludgeoned to death with some hard object—perhaps a wooden spear or stone hand-ax, or even a rock. The attacker was probably right-handed, given the location of the wounds, which could have shown his or her motive for murder (S. Pruitt,