Scientists use skull to build face of Neanderthal woman

A 75,000-year-old Neanderthal skeleton found in the foothills of Iraq is believed to have been a woman aged in her mid-forties, according to researchers who pieced her skull back together.

- SAM RUSSELL

The skull of the skeleton, unearthed at the Shanidar Cave site about 800km (500 miles) north of Baghdad and named Shanidar Z, has been recreated as part of a new Netflix documentary called Secrets Of The Neanderthals.

When archaeologists from Cambridge University and Liverpool John Moores found the skull in 2018, it had been flattened to around two centimetres thick. It had been crushed, possibly by rockfall, relatively soon after death and then compacted further by tens of thousands of years of sediment.

More than 200 pieces of the skull were pieced together freehand to return it to its original shape.

Without pelvic bones, the team relied on sequencing tooth enamel proteins to determine the sex of the skeleton – believed to be female and aged in her mid-forties. Teeth were also used to gauge her age through levels of wear and tear – with some front teeth worn down to the root.