Face of a 75,000-year-old Neanderthal woman revealed by scientists
The skull of an ancient neanderthal woman has been rebuilt centuries after it was smashed into pieces in a cave in Kurdistan in northern Iraq.
LONDON — She looks pretty good for 75,000 years old.
Particularly given that her skull was smashed into 200 pieces, possibly by a rockfall, before scientists meticulously pieced it together over the last six years.
This is Shanidar Z, a Neanderthal woman whose face was re-created by archaeologists at England’s University of Cambridge. Reimagining her facial features, rather than just the skull itself, the university said a report published on its website Thursday, has given experts new insight into what our ancient cousins actually looked like.
Turns out they may have been more similar than we thought — in terms of both their facial features and their thoughts about death.
“The skulls of Neanderthals and humans look very different” to ours, Emma Pomeroy, a paleoanthropologist at Cambridge, said in the report. “Neanderthal skulls have huge brow ridges and lack chins, with a projecting midface that results in more prominent noses. But the recreated face suggests those differences were not so stark in life.”
Rating: 5