Evidence of earliest murder comes to light

The skull of a prehistoric human relative that lived 430,000 years ago and found in a cave in northern Spain is shown in this undated handout photo provided by Madrid Scientific Films May 27, 2015. Scientists on Wednesday said the skull discovered deep inside a cave in the Atapuerca mountain range, showed telltale signs of homicide: two fractures inflicted on the victim by the same weapon. REUTERS/Javier Trueba/Madrid Scientific Films/Handout via Reuters ATTENTION EDITORS - NO ARCHIVES. NO SALES. FOR EDITORIAL USE ONLY. NOT FOR SALE FOR MARKETING OR ADVERTISING CAMPAIGNS. THIS IMAGE HAS BEEN SUPPLIED BY A THIRD PARTY. IT IS DISTRIBUTED, EXACTLY AS RECEIVED BY REUTERS, AS A SERVICE TO CLIENTS. NO COMMERCIAL USE.

Lethal fractures preserved in an almost fully preserved early human skull indicate the earliest instance of murder in human history, some 4,30,000 years ago (Middle Pleistocene).

The skull was recovered from an archaeological site Sima de los Huesos in northern Spain. The results of a study were published on Thursday in the journal PLOS ONE.

The presence of two fractures of similar size and shape but running in two different directions on the frontal bone strongly suggests that the early human was killed when another member of his group stuck the skull twice using the same object.

The fractures are present on the left side of the frontal bone suggesting that a right-handed member had stuck the skull during a face-to-face conflict.

Incidentally, the Sima de los Huesos population is considered “mainly right-handed.”

According to Nohemi Sala, the first author of the paper from the ‘Centro Mixto UCM-ISCIII de Evolución y Comportamiento Humanos,’ Madrid, Spain, the fractures are very unlikely to be due to accidental or unintentional trauma. Also, the multiple blows rule out the possibility of the injuries being self-inflicted.