Shanidar Cave

36.80269598527844.230978488889Koordinaten: 36 ° 48 '10 " N, 44 ° 13' 52" E

Shanidar is a cave in the north of Iraq, in the province of Arbil. It is situated in 745 m height at the Great Zab in the foothills of the Zagros Mountains. The cave is inhabited in the winter of nomadic Kurdish tribes.

Finds

In the cave of the American prehistorian Ralph Solecki (Columbia University, New York) were carried out excavations 1953-1960 headed. The layer sequence is from modern times to the Middle Palaeolithic back.

In layer D were a total of nine Neanderthals excavated ( Shanidar I to IX ). Your age is given as 45,000 to 50,000 years. The remains of three young male Neanderthals were particularly well received. It is currently the only locality of Neanderthals in the Arabian Peninsula east of the Jordan.

Table according to Steward 1977, Plate 1

Erik Trinkaus assumes that the skulls of individuals I and V artificially deformed. Layer B1 was on 10 600 ± 300 BP dated ( W -667). On the lower terrace of the Great Zab, before the entrance to the village of the same name Shanidar is the protoneolithische settlement of Zawi Chemi.