The dual nature of humanity may have emerged much earlier than thought, going by the survival of a person slammed in the jaw in Qafzeh Cave, and some pretty sick children
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The dual nature of humanity may have emerged much earlier than thought, going by the survival of a person slammed in the jaw in Qafzeh Cave, and some pretty sick children
02:55 AM • July 10 2026 IDT
Humankind in deep prehistory is often assumed to have been mild-mannered. Being nomadic, they could just pick up and move on if trouble emerged, such as competition over a resource. They didn't have homesteads to protect, a common hypothesis goes.
But early Homo sapiens in Qafzeh Cave near Nazareth 110,000 years to 90,000 years ago seems to have had issues. Fresh analysis of the jawbone of the individual dubbed Qafzeh-25 reveals a deep, albeit partially healed cut-mark that suggests somebody slammed this person in the face with a sharp rock.
Yet Qafzeh-25 did not die, researchers from the Centro Nacional de Investigación sobre la Evolución Humana and Tel Aviv University report in Science Advances. He or she lived on and at least partially healed; they would become one of as many as 27 early modern people that archaeologists have uncovered in burials at Qafzeh. (Two date to the tail-end of the Palaeolithic, around 30,000 years ago, and the rest date to the Middle Palaeolithic.)
Moreover, some of the kids who died and were among the 27 bodies discovered in the cave so far were in a parlous state. In other words, the lesion smacks of snarling interpersonal violence among some of the earliest Homo sapiens in Eurasia – but conversely, the finds together imply healthcare followed by caring burial.
Possibly, violence arose in the early emergence of territorialism, as inferred from the establishment of a graveyard in the cave, suggests coauthor Israel Hershkovitz of Tel Aviv University, writing with Ana Pantoja-Pérez, Laura Martín-Francé, Hila May, and Nohemi Sala.
Note that other explanations are not impossible. Maybe at dusk or during a storm, perhaps a myopic human mistook Qafzeh-25 for a deer. Or sheer accident – this reporter has slipped on sharp rocks outside a hominin cave. But the archaeologists feel the features of the lesion disclose assault.
At the other end of the rainbow, the Qafzeh children were a sickly lot. A 12-year-old was apparently hydrocephalic; Qafzeh-9 exhibited jaw abnormalities. "Congenital and growth-related disorders were relatively common" among the kids. Somebody was caring for all these.
All this is from recent analysis. The discovery that hominins lived and/or used the caves of the Carmel "mountain" range began in the post-World War I days, under the British Mandate. The hominins of Carmel were initially classified as Palaeoanthropus palestinensis, and deemed to be a descendant of Homo heidelbergensis. Advances in science since then have led to a very different conclusion – that the Middle Palaeolithic denizens of Qafzeh were modern humans, who had exited Africa long, long before the "successful" exit around 50,000 years ago that would result in humankind conquering the planet.
In fact, it seems early modern humans penetrated Europe as long as 250,000 years ago and died out there, but not before mating with Neanderthals. Again and again, Homo sapiens would venture Eurasia-ward, run into Neanderthals, have congress and die out. Israel has evidence of Homo sapiens almost 200,000 years ago, and of Neanderthals, too. In Israel, the Neanderthals disappeared about 50,000 years ago, though they hung on elsewhere longer.
The team also reinforces the interpretation of Qafzeh as a cemetery. Its burials are among the earliest known, and they hint at ritual. For example, one teen, aged 12 or 13, laid flexed in a niche in the rock with a set of deer antlers, and the site was colored with red ocher.
Not only did Qafzeh-25 suffer that blow to the jaw that affected its left mandible and third premolar, the archaeologists add. Their work reinforces previous reports that the early modern humans in the cave had a host of tooth trouble.
Pre-agricultural dental caries are considered to have been rare compared to today, since their diets were lower in carbohydrates and sugar. But tooth trouble wasn't nonexistent, including from simple malocclusion. Diets rich in fruit can damage the teeth, as has been observed in fossil monkeys. Pre-industrial people also had diets richer in tough foods, which casts on wear and tear, and research suggests teeth were used as tools, for instance when cording, which would also cause wear. This practice, rather than pathology, is suspected to have afflicted the early occupants of Skhul and Qafzeh.
As for the suspected attack, it's hard to know 100,000 years after the event, but there is some evidence that prehistoric persons were not necessarily easygoing. Archaeologists have identified racewar in Sudan over 13,000 years ago, and a massacre in Kenya 10,000 years ago, but before that? Some cave art that could indicate hostilities, and before that – there are isolated examples. A Neanderthal in St. Césaire, France is thought to have had his skull cracked by a fellow and to have survived; ditto one in Croatia; yet another Neanderthal in Shanidar, Iraq seems to have been knifed in the ribs by another Neanderthal or by an encroaching sapiens.
All these cases are very cold, entirely mysterious cases but do suggest ancient violence, as does our good old human nature. We didn't conquer the planet with thoughts and prayers.
So what have we? Based on the collection of burials, with grave goods, and the blow to one early modern human's face in Qafzeh, we seem to have evidence for the emerging cultural complexity over 100,000 years ago, with the duality of violence at one end, and loving healthcare and burial at the other. The cemetery may reflect may express an emerging sense of territory and the lesion may reflect some primordial desire to protect it, or just somebody's vile temper. For all that prehistoric evidence of violence is rare, it never did make sense that Post-Agricultural Human invented the Will Smith-style slap.
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