Around 100,000 years ago, an early Homo sapiens individual was likely stabbed in the face with a sharp stone tool and subsequently buried in a cave that is now located in Israel, as determined by archaeological analysis.
In a study published June 30 in the journal Scientific Reports, the international team of researchers closely examined the skull and lower jaw of a person who was deliberately buried in Qafzeh cave in Israel during the Middle Paleolithic period.
At least 27 individuals were interred in Qafzeh cave between approximately 145,000 and 92,000 years ago, representing some of the earliest known burials of our species outside Africa. Earlier excavations conducted between the 1930s and 1970s had revealed that two of these skeletons sustained cranial trauma.
Employing microscopic examination and micro‑CT scanning, the researchers identified a linear cut on the left side of the lower jaw of Qafzeh 25, an adult male, which traverses a bicuspid and adjacent maxilla. Evidence of bone healing indicates that the injury occurred several years prior to death.
The location of the lesion on the facial region supports the interpretation that the wound was inflicted intentionally rather than as an accidental occurrence.
A close-up of the left side of the lower jaw, showing a cut mark near a bicuspid.
(Image credit: Ana Pantoja et al.)
The specific instrument responsible for the cut remains unidentified; however, flint scrapers and pointed stone artifacts recovered at Qafzeh could have been adapted into spear tips capable of inflicting such injuries.
Forensic investigations of contemporary human populations demonstrate a left‑side predominance in craniofacial trauma, a pattern typically attributed to right‑handed assailants in direct confrontations, the researchers wrote.
If the researchers’ interpretation of the cut mark is accurate, it would represent the earliest documented case of sharp‑force trauma in the archaeological record, according to the study authors.
Qafzeh cave is already renowned for providing some of the clearest evidence of deliberate burial of early modern humans. This discovery further indicates that groups that migrated out of Africa possessed sophisticated cultural practices.
“These results provide new data to the debate on the origin of complex behaviors such as interpersonal violence, the care of injured or sick individuals and funeral practices,” study lead author Ana Pantoja Pérez, a paleoanthropologist at Spain’s National Research Center for Human Evolution, noted in a press statement.
