Latest research
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Scanning electron microscope image showing burnt remains of plant foods (legumes - peas or lentils) from Shanidar Cave dating to about 70,000 years ago. Image by Ceren Kabukcu.
*** NEW RESULTS - Neanderthal cooking! ***
An exciting new study from the Shanidar Cave Project team, led by Ceren Kabukcu (University of Liverpool), shows that Shanidar Cave Neanderthals were cooking (and accidentally burning!) food made from wild lentils, peas and grains some 70,000 years ago. The ingredients had been pounded before they were cooked to remove some of the bitter tasting outer seed coats and make to them easier to digest. However, the fact that Neanderthals didn't remove the bitter parts completely might mean they actually liked the bitter taste! Similar foods were also produced by modern humans at Shanidar Cave around 40,000 years ago.
Studies of Neanderthal diet have often emphasised meat-eating, but this study adds to growing evidence that plants were an important part of Neanderthal diets too, and that they liked some bitter tastes in their food. You can read more about the study here.
Results of the Shanidar Cave Project
The Shanidar Cave Project has re-opened Ralph Solecki’s original excavation trench down to a depth of approximately 10 m. We have excavated a series of approximately 30 × 30 cm ‘sample columns’ down the walls of the trench to study the archaeological layers in detail and to provide samples for a whole range of specialist analyses.
We have also excavated small trenches around the locations of his Shanidar 1, 3 and 5 Neanderthals at about 3-4 m depth, and at around 7-8 m depth where he found the cluster of individuals he designated Shanidar 4, 6, 8 and 9, aiming to obtain new information about when and how the Neanderthal remains came to rest there.
The General Directorate of Antiquities and the Directorate of Antiquities (Soran Office) have generously given us permission to export some archaeological materials on loan for specialist analyses: selected stone tools, fragments of animal and human bone, mollusc fragments, charcoal for vegetation reconstruction and radiocarbon dating, and a variety of sediment samples for pollen, sedimentological and geochemical analysis, and OSL (optically stimulated luminescence) and radiocarbon dating.
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Right: Excavations at Shanidar Cave in 2018. Photo: Graeme Barker
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All other excavated sediment is processed in a system of flotation tanks to wash out burnt materials and other small items like small animal bones, seeds and stone tool flakes. After drying these are screened and painstakingly searched for all archaeological materials larger than 2 mm.
Left: Sorting the 'residues from flotation to recover microscopic archaeological evidence.
Photo: Graeme Barker
Life at Shanidar Cave in the Palaeolithic
The Palaeolithic ("Stone Age") saw both Neanderthals and the modern humans ("Baradostians") who replaced them using the cave mainly as a seasonal hunting station. We find evidence of their small campfires or hearths, bones from the animals they ate, and microscopic burnt remains of plants that tell us about what people ate.
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Above: Ibex still live around the site today and are well camouflaged climbing the vertical rocks: they must have required some skill to catch! Photo: James Holman. Left: A stone tool used by Neanderthals at Shanidar Cave. Photo: Emma Pomeroy
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The main species hunted by both Neanderthals and Palaeolithic modern humans was the extremely agile ibex, which we regularly see grazing in the Shanidar Cave Archaeological Reserve, hopping up more-or-less vertical cliffs. They come into the cave to drink at a spring behind the excavation, along with predators like hyenas and wolves.
Both Neanderthals and modern humans also hunted small game including tortoises, caught fish in the Greater Zab River near the cave, and collected snails and a variety of plant foods.
What was the environment like?
Snails and small animals (‘microfauna’) are quite particular about the environments they like to live in. By studying their remains and which species were present at any given time, we can build a detailed picture of what the environment was like in the past and how it changed over time.
Analyses of the snails by Dr Evan Hill and small animal remains by Emily Tilby are showing that Neanderthals and modern humans both lived in and around the cave during warmer periods (‘interstadials’) when the climate was similar to today.
Left: Snail shells found near Shanidar Cave today: 1 – Assyriella sp. : very common everywhere in the valley. 2 – Hellicella sp. : common on long grass and on rocks. 3 – Chrondrula sp. : uncommon, found in leaflitter. 4 – Orcula sp. : rare, found in leaf litter. 5 – Ena sp. : uncommon, found in leaflitter and on trees. Right: A crab claw found in excavations at Shanidar Cave, presumably from the Greater Zab River in the valley below. Photos: Evan Hill.
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An entirely unexpected bonus has been the discovery of in situ skeletal remains, which are exceptionally rare in Neanderthal archaeology. So far, these have been identified as belonging to at least two individuals.
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Shanidar 5
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In 2015 and 2016 we found some leg and foot bones and other scattered parts of the spine, hand and hip of a Neanderthal. The bones were still in anatomical connection, and detailed examination of their anatomy and location convincingly shows these belong to Ralph Solecki’s Neanderthal known as Shanidar 5.
Preliminary indications are that Shanidar 5's remains date to around 45,000-50,000 years ago. Unfortunately, although we have tried to date the remains directly and to extract ancient DNA, there is no preservation of the organic components of the bone needed for these analyses.
The new Neanderthal remains
Lower leg of Shanidar 5 recovered in 2015. Bones from the ankle can be seen at the top of the picture. Photo: Graeme Barker
Shanidar Z and the Shanidar 4, 6, 8 and 9 cluster
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In 2016 we found further Neanderthal bones near to where Solecki's team found the remains of the Shanidar 4 Neanderthal (also known as the 'flower burial' because of pollen found among the bones which Solecki and pollen specialist Arlette Leroi-Gourhan controversially argued showed Shanidar 4 had been buried on a bed of flowers). When we excavated the new bones in 2018 and 2019, we found the crushed skull of an adult Neanderthal overlying parts of his/her (we don't know yet!) arms and upper torso. The bones were very soft and were made safe to excavate by hardening them with soluble chemicals before being removed still embedded in soil.
Left: Paul Bennett (left), Graeme Barker (centre) and Emma Pomeroy (right) discuss the newly-uncovered, heavily crushed skull of Shanidar Z in 2018. Photo: Graeme Barker
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It is likely that the lower part of Shanidar Z’s body was removed by Ralph Solecki’s team in 1960 when they recovered the ‘flower burial’ Shanidar 4, and individuals 6, 8 and 9. Because Shanidar 4’s bone were very delicate, Solecki’s team removed the whole skeleton in a block of sediment for careful excavation in the Iraq Museum, but they didn’t realise the block contained parts of at least 3 other Neanderthal skeletons until they started removing it! Shanidar Z’s lower body was likely in that block. Understanding the relationships between Shanidar Z and the cluster of Shanidar 4, 6, 8 and 9 is an important part of our ongoing work.
There are layers with evidence of daily life both above and around the remains, so we have a unique opportunity to use precision excavation techniques and modern science to investigate how Neanderthals lived - and died - at Shanidar Cave.
Whatever we discover about the relationship between the living and the dead in this extraordinary site will contribute to big debates about how similar or different Neanderthal behaviour and thinking were to our own.
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By removing a small intact block of soil, setting it in resin, and studying thin slices under the microscope, we were able to learn a great deal about how the remains came to rest there. This sediment micromorphology analysis showed that bones were in a shallow scoop that had been dug on purpose, and that there were fragments of plants preserved. Rocks appeared to have been placed near the individual’s head, and OSL shows the burial dates to around 70,000-75,000 years ago.
Ralph Solecki (front left), T. Dale Stewart (back left) and Jaques Bordaz (back right) discuss the Shanidar 4 remains (centre), which lay directly adjacent to the new Shanidar Z remains. Photo: Ralph Solecki
Right: Front and back views of the incised piece of snail shell dated to approximately 30,000 years ago. Scale: 500 microns. Photo: Chris Hunt.
Modern humans at Shanidar Cave
The new excavations have also provided some fascinating insights into the lives and behaviour of the earliest modern humans (Homo sapiens) to use the cave. This includes a shell fragment with incised lines that may have been worn as jewellery. One of our current questions is whether Neanderthals and early modern humans ever lived at the site at the same time, or at least overlapped in when they used the cave.
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Ralph Solecki’s field notebook describing the discovery of the Shanidar 1 skeleton (Series 1.1 Season I-IV Field Notebooks, Excavation Catalogs, and Notes, 1951-1963, Box 4, Folder ‘Ralph Solecki- Iraq Museum Baghdad, 1957,” Ralph S. and Rose L. Solecki papers, National Anthropological Archives. Photograph by Molly Kamph.)
Archival research
In addition to new excavations, members of the project team have been working with Ralph and Rose Solecki’s archives. Part of the archive is stored at Columbia University New York, and the majority, which was originally stored in the Soleckis’ house, is now at the National Anthropological Archives at the Smithsonian Institution, Washington DC, USA.
The archives offer an amazingly rich record of the Soleckis’ research at Shanidar and other sites, including excavation notes, photographs, drawings, written records, correspondence, manuscripts, films and some samples of stone tools and animal bones. These are helping to provide new insights into the Soleckis’ pioneering work and their discoveries at Shanidar Cave and Zawi Chemi Shanidar.
Find out more about the Shanidar Cave Project
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Work by Dr Ralph Solecki and his team from 1951-1960 challenged prevailing ideas about Neanderthals, and put Shanidar Cave on the map
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Read more about the discovery of the Neanderthal remains known as 'Shanidar Z', and the ongoing research into their life and death
Publications, media and resources​
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Find our scientific and popular publications here, plus other resources about Shanidar Cave