The Shanidar Cave Neanderthals
Origin Stories
Meredith Johnson
4.8 • 554 Ratings
🗓️ 29 April 2025
⏱️ 34 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Shanidar Cave is a unique archaeological site in Kurdistan where scientists found the remains of 10 Neanderthal men, women, and children. Some of these individuals had survived serious injuries, and one seemed to have been buried with flowers beneath his body. The discoveries at Shanidar challenged long-standing ideas of who Neanderthals were and what separates our species from theirs. Now, more than 50 years after the original excavations, scientists have returned to Shanidar to answer lingering questions about the Neanderthals who lived and died there.
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Links to learn more
The Shanidar Cave Project
Ralph Solecki's excavations
Ralph S. and Rose L. and Solecki Papers at the Smithsonian
Shanidar Z: 75,000-year-old face revealed
More about Shanidar Z
Shanidar Cave location
New Shanidar research on cooking
Revisiting the flower burial
Shanidar: The First Flower People (pdf of book by Ralph Solecki)
Sponsors
Origin Stories is a project of The Leakey Foundation, a donor-supported nonprofit dedicated to funding human origins research and sharing discoveries to advance public understanding of science.
This episode is generously sponsored by Dub and Ginny Crook. Dub and Ginny are long-time Leakey Foundation Fellows who directly support scientific research and science communication projects. They are passionate about human origins research and making science accessible for all. We are deeply grateful for their support.
Are you interested in sponsoring a future episode? Email media@leakeyfoundation.org to learn more!
Origin Stories is listener-supported. Additional support comes from Jeanne Newman, the Anne and Gordon Getty Foundation, and the Joan and Arnold Travis Education Fund.
Credits
This episode was produced and written by Ray Pang and Meredith Johnson. Sound design by Ray Pang. Our editor is Audrey Quinn. Michael Gallagher helped record the interviews at Cambridge. Our theme music is by Henry Nagle with additional music by Blue Dot Sessions and Lee Roservere.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | This is Origin Stories, the Leaky Foundation podcast. I'm Meredith Johnson. |
| 0:10.7 | In this episode, we're exploring a one-of-a-kind fossil site that changed our understanding of |
| 0:16.6 | Neanderthals, their way of life, and even how they treated their dead. |
| 0:21.7 | Before we get into the episode, I want to talk a little bit about the work the Leaky Foundation does, |
| 0:26.9 | and a simple action you can take to support science. |
| 0:31.4 | For over 55 years, thanks to people like you, the Leaky Foundation has supported scientists, |
| 0:37.9 | funded groundbreaking research, and shared discoveries with the world. |
| 0:42.5 | We're one of the only sources of funding for human origins research. |
| 0:49.3 | And we are 100% donor-supported, not funded at all by the government. |
| 0:56.4 | If you care about this science and you're not currently a donor, now is the time. |
| 1:02.4 | With your help, we'll continue this important work no matter what. |
| 1:07.0 | So if you can, please support the show with a monthly or one-time gift. Every dollar makes a difference. |
| 1:13.9 | Your donation will be matched and your impact will be doubled. |
| 1:17.9 | Please go to leakyfoundation.org slash origin stories or click the link in your show notes. |
| 1:23.3 | Thank you so much. |
| 1:25.2 | And now here's our story of one of the most important Neanderthal sites in the world. |
| 1:30.8 | In the mountain foothills of Kurdistan in northern Iraq, there's a limestone cave that has sheltered |
| 1:37.0 | people for tens of thousands of years. It's called Shanadar Cave, a site where in the mid-1950s, archaeologist Ralph Selecki uncovered |
| 1:47.7 | the remains of 10 Neanderthals. |
| 1:51.4 | These skeletons told a surprising story of the Neanderthals who lived there, cared for each |
| 1:57.4 | other, and possibly buried their dead. |
| 2:04.4 | The discoveries at Shanadar Cave challenged fundamental ideas of who Neanderthals were and what separates our species from theirs. |
... |
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