A team of scientists have digitally reconstructed the face of a woman who was buried in a cave 75,000 years ago in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq (KRI). The woman, a Neanderthal, had died in her forties and was laid to rest in a small gully.
Her remains were discovered in Shanidar Cave in 2018, and the scientists spent nine months piecing her skull together from 200 separate pieces.
The recreation is for “Secrets of the Neanderthals”, a new show by the BBC produced for Netflix.
Shanidar Cave is an archaeological site on Bradost Mountain, in Erbil (Hewlêr) of the KRI. Multiple remains have been uncovered in the cave, dating back to 1953.
As well as being a site of archaeological importance, the countryside of Erbil has been witness to an intense bombardment of airstrikes in recent times, with two civilians being killed by Turkish airstrikes most recently on 28 April.
The strike came just days after Al-Araby Al-Jadeed reported that leaders in Erbil and Baghdad had agreed to support Turkey’s airstrikes in Iraqi Kurdistan. Turkish Defence Minister Yaşar Güler announced that Iraqi forces will establish a joint operations centre to assist the Turkish military. In total, at least 12 civilians have been killed this year in the KRI by Turkish bombardment.
A ballistic missile attack on Erbil by the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) in January also killed an infant in the region. The 1-year-old had been named after Jina Amini, whose death had sparked nationwide protests in Iran.
