User:Jramo059/Shanidar Cave

Shanidar 5
The Shanidar 5 remains were found during the 1960 excavations, in layer D, about 4.5 meters below datum. It is an adult Neanderthal, thought to be male. It was caught in the same rockfall that killed Shanidar 1. Recovered were a cranium, 4 teeth, 1 vertebrae, 8 ribs, and miscellaneous other bones. The arrangement of the broken skeletal remains was thought to have been due to animals intervening after death. Radiocarbon results put the date at about 46,000 before the present day. Some years later a small correction to the original cranial reconstruction was found. During the recent excavations more pieces of Shanidar 5 were found.

Adding onto Shanidar 5:
and around 40-50 years of age before death.

The cranium of Shanidar 5 was reconstructed by Erik Trinkaus and his collegues beginning 1976 and was finalized in 1994 after correcting a couple of errors caught in the process. During the process of reconstruction, there were discussions suggesting signs of intentional cranial deformation. Erik Trinkaus suggested that Shanidar 5 had its cranium deformed intentionally as an infant. However, this implication was overruled due to the fact that the curve was missing after the correction of a misplaced cranium bone fragment. Still, the frontal mid sagittal angle of this individual was very flat at 147º. The cranium shows signs of endocranial hyperostosis were plaques are found in the left and right side of the frontal crest and in the front area of sagittal sinus.

Shanidar 9 (was not in article)
The remains of Shanidar 9 were discovered in the removal of Shanidar 4 when encasing it in sediment block and transporting it to the Baghdad Museum.

Diets Discovered (was not in article)
Land snails were excavated and discovered in significant amounts and thought to be part of the Shanidar diet. It is unclear whether this diet was caused from cultural change or a change in the environment that lead to changes in previous foods as seen in the analysis of size decrease in goats. However, there are other lineages from Africa that share this diet and was culturally motivated which may indicate that the Neanderthals in the Shanidar cave may have possibly changed their diet for cultural reason. In layer B, dating back to approximately 12,000 years ago, Ralph S. Solecki finds numerous snail shells which may indicate the Shanidar maintained this diet for some time.

Recent work[edit]
Investigations were conducted in 2014-2015 under the auspices of the Kurdistan Directorate of Antiquities. The remains found in the Shanidar cave are being reexamined to analyze the mortuary activity of the Neanderthal people who inhabited this area. There are various signs of activity with the remains after death being that the position of the skull and mandible of Shanidar 1 were not natural. Examinations of other sites will be integral in understanding and analyzing the activity of the remains after death of those found in the Shanidar cave. Additional work is being conducted on the faunal remains found in Layer D at the University of Chicago to analyze butchery activity. Many remains found had cut marks that where caused by flint items which correlates to butchery practices.