Evidence of Prehistoric Murder Discovered In Spain
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Workers carrying out an excavation at the Atapuerca archaeological site, participating in the ‘2010 season’ of digging, prepare to go down to the ‘Sima de los Huesos’ on July 21, 2010. The sites in this area were found during excavation of railway cuttings. CESAR MANSO/AFP/Getty Images(NEW YORK) – Scientists digging in a pit in the mountains of Spain have discovered what they believe is the earliest known evidence of a murder.
Working at Sima de Los Huesos, or the “Pit Of Bones,” on the northern coast of the country, the team found a skull with two fractures on it. Those blows to the head indicate a violent death, according to their paper in the journal PLOS One.
The skull is believed to be from a Neanderthal and dates back roughly 430,000 years, the researchers said.
The two fractures on the head indicate a blunt-force trauma. The researchers said it would be near impossible for the death to have been by accident, since the Neanderthal would have had to accidentally run into the same object twice.
“Given that either of the two traumatic events was likely lethal, the presence of multiple blows implies an intention to kill,” the authors wrote in the study.
Nohemi Sala, lead author on the study, said that while researchers suspected murder, they were not sure how the murder happened.
“We will never know what the weapon was,” Sala told ABC News.
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