Scientists solve 33,000-year-old murder mystery

Researchers have solved the world’s oldest cold case - the murder of a man who lived more than 33,000 years ago.

Using forensic science, the team found that the Palaeolithic-era man had died of blunt force trauma, suffering two blows to the head.

The skull, known as Cioclovina calvaria, was found in a cave in Transylvania, Romania in 1941, and is one of the oldest and best preserved skulls of an early modern human.

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Scientists have long been mystified by the extensive fractures on the skull, and debated the cause of trauma.

An international team of researchers used CT scans to determine the head injuries had been fatal as there were no signs of healing.

Recreations using artificial skulls ruled out death from a fall, with injuries most consistent with blunt force trauma to the head from a bat-like object.

Bone fragment analysis led them to believe he had been facing his attacker when he received the fatal blow.

They speculated that the attacker could have been left-handed, or used both hands, owing to the injuries being on the right side of the skull.

One of the researchers, Elena Kranioti, from the University of Crete, told New Scientist that the extent and location of the cranial fractures suggest that the person died shortly after being struck.

The Upper Palaeolithic period is known for its significant technological advances and increased symbolic behaviour and cultural complexity, the authors wrote in the research paper in PLOS.

“We show that the behavioural repertoire of the earliest modern Europeans also comprised violent inter-personal interactions and murder.”

According to Newsweek, the Middle to Upper Palaeolithic period is considered the time when religion emerged. “Understanding social relationships at this time is important in understanding how societies would later emerge.”

Speaking to New Scientist, Stanley Serafin, from the University of New South Wales, Australia, said that given the timing of the death, there are questions about whether the attack was committed by someone of the same species, or whether it was caused by modern humans migrating into areas where Neanderthals may have still lived.

The skull is kept in the University of Bucharest’s laboratory of palaeontology.