A murder of 430,000 years ago helps solve one of the mysteries of Atapuerca

2015/05/27 Galarraga Aiestaran, Ana - Elhuyar Zientzia Iturria: Elhuyar aldizkaria

• Paleontologia
• Eboluzioa
• Arkeologia

This skull, which has been investigated, is the 17th cranium and consists of 52 tracks collected during twenty years of excavation (1990-2010). He belongs to a young man with two holes in the forehead over the left eye.

17 Skull Ed. Javier Trueba/Madrid Scientific Films

Using forensic techniques, they have shown that someone made the two holes with the same object and with two strokes with different angles. That is, it was a murder, the blows were not accidental. According to the researchers’ note, it would be “the first case of murder known in the history of humanity.”

The investigators have come to the conclusion that, after his death, other human beings were transferred to the Osín de los Huesos, which suggests that the corpses that were later found in the place were intentionally accumulated.

The research has been directed by the Nohemi Room of the Mixed Center UCM-ISCIII on Evolution and Human Behavior and has had the collaboration of Asier Gómez Oliexperiencia, researcher of Ikerbasque of the Department of Stratigraphy and Paleontology of the UPV. The article has been published in the journal PLOS ONE.