April 26, 2015 The oldest case of murder

The oldest case of murder in human history was discovered six years ago by Spanish archaeologists. The crime took place 430,000 years ago. Experts have found a trail near the Sierra de Atapuerca mountains.

There they encountered a skull shattered into 52 fragments, which archaeologists managed to put together. And so they came to the conclusion that someone had murdered its owner in a particularly brutal way. The assailant pierced his skull twice. Archaeologists have found two holes of the same size above the eye.

Experts performed a CT analysis, which showed that no healing process had begun, so the wounds were logically the cause of death. "Someone seems to have pierced the skull twice in almost the same place. The man to whom the skull belonged died as a result of violence between two people. We have a new insight into the social aspects of our ancestors' lives, "commented Nohemi Sala's discovery of the skull at the time, which examined the remains.

The wounds were caused by a blunt object and the killer was right-handed. However, who specifically committed the murder and why will forever remain a mystery. According to archaeologists, it is impossible to find out the details of such an old act of violence.

"Sherlock Holmes himself wouldn't really help us with that," the archaeologist smiled.

Specifically, the skull was in an abyss called the Bone Pit. It is located near the city of Burgos in northern Spain and is fourteen meters deep. Archaeologists have found the entire skeletons of at least 28 prehistoric people and another 6,800 bone fragments. The skeletons have the features of pre-Neanderthal humans, and their mitochondrial DNA is very close to the Denisans.

The first expedition went there in August 1976. It was led by a mining engineer Trinidad de Torres. They discovered the human jaw, as well as the bones of Deninger's bear, which is considered the ancestor of the cave bear. The researchers later found that the Bone Pit was a sacrificial site. It could have been one of the first places of sacrifice.

The bones found apparently cracked under the weight of the soil that fell on them. However, no traces of cannibalism were found. The number 17 skull bore the marks of a violent death, as archaeologists who searched a mysterious place in Spain later revealed. It even claims to be one of the oldest burial grounds in human history…

Resources:
https://enigmaplus.cz/, www.denik.cz, https://elhistoriadores.wordpress.com/, www.atapuerca.org