Violence, the care of injured or ill individuals, and funerary behaviour are among the most challenging aspects of the human past to reconstruct. A study published in Scientific Reports and led by researchers from the Centro Nacional de Investigación sobre la Evolución Humana (CENIEH), in collaboration with colleagues from Tel Aviv University, provides new insights into these questions through the analysis of Qafzeh 25, a fossil human from Qafzeh Cave (Israel) dated to between 92,000 and 145,000 years ago.

Using an integrated approach that combined macroscopic and microscopic analyses with high-resolution micro-computed tomography (microCT), the researchers identified a linear lesion affecting both the mandible and one of the lower premolars. Its morphology is consistent with sharp-force trauma caused by a sharp object. Signs of bone remodeling show that the injury had begun to heal, indicating that the individual survived for some time after sustaining it.

Although the precise cause of the injury cannot be established, the researchers suggest that, while an accidental origin cannot be ruled out, it most likely resulted from interpersonal violence. Whatever its origin, the discovery expands the extremely limited record of possible sharp-force trauma currently known from the Middle Palaeolithic.

The study also identified previously undocumented dental conditions that shed new light on the individual's oral health. Among the findings are a hidden caries in a lower premolar, detected using microCT, together with enamel defects. These results broaden our understanding of the biology and living conditions of some of the earliest Homo sapiens populations known outside Africa.

Funerary behaviour
The research also includes a detailed taphonomic reassessment of the skeleton, allowing the team to reconstruct the processes that affected the remains after death. The results rule out damage caused by carnivores or prolonged exposure of the body and show that the anatomical preservation of the skeleton is consistent with deliberate burial. This strengthens the importance of Qafzeh Cave as one of the key archaeological sites for investigating the earliest funerary practices of Homo sapiens.

Taken together, the evidence of a healed traumatic injury, multiple dental pathologies and deliberate burial provides one of the most complete pictures to date of the lives—and deaths—of the human populations that inhabited the Levant more than 90,000 years ago.

"These findings provide new evidence in the ongoing debate about the origins of complex behaviours such as interpersonal violence, the care of injured or ill individuals, and funerary practices—fundamental aspects for understanding the social and cultural evolution of our species," says Ana Pantoja Pérez, first author of the study and a member of the DEATHREVOL research group.

The research received funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union's Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Programme, the Spanish Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities, the European Social Fund, the Spanish State Research Agency (AEI), and the Horizon Europe Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions programme.