The First Murder Was 430,000 Years Ago

Описание: Scientists solved a 430,000-year-old murder like a modern crime scene. The victim - a young adult - was found crushed into 52 pieces at the bottom of a 13-meter pit in Atapuerca, Spain. In its forehead, just above the left eye, were two clean holes. The clue that cracked the case: both wounds were the exact same shape, made by the same weapon, striking twice. A fall down a pit can't hit the same spot twice with the same object - this was no accident. Two blows, each deadly on its own, means one thing: intent to kill, face to face. And someone threw the body down that pit - the first known time anyone got rid of a corpse. The twist? This happened before our species even existed. The killer wasn't human; it was an early ancestor of the Neanderthals. Murder is older than humanity itself. We didn't invent it. We inherited it.

(Source: Sala, Arsuaga et al., 'Lethal Interpersonal Violence in the Middle Pleistocene', PLOS ONE 2015 - Cranium 17, Sima de los Huesos.)

#shorts #humanevolution #truecrime #atapuerca #neanderthal #paleoanthropology #thecuriousape #science #prehistory