Kurdistan
Professor Graeme Barker (left) speaking to Ranj Sangawi (right) and Shanidar Z, the neanderthal found in Shanidar cave in the Kurdistan Region. Photo: Rudaw, Graphic: Rudaw
ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Archaeologists working at Shanidar Cave where the remains of the Neanderthal woman named Shanidar Z were uncovered, hope their findings will make the case for the cave to be made a world heritage site.
“Shanidar Z has two main reasons for being important. One, as the film has shown and as a reaction to the film, is that Shanidar Z made Kurdish people realise the importance of their deep heritage,” Graeme Barker, professor of archaeology at the University of Cambridge, told Rudaw’s Ranj Sangawi.
“It means that the Kurdish people will realize how important the Shanidar Cave is, not just Shanidar Z,” he added.
Scientists from the University of Cambridge pieced together the skull of Shanidar Z, found in the Kurdistan Region six years ago and featured in Secrets of the Neanderthals, a BBC documentary recently featured on Netflix. The documentary follows the work of a British team who found Shanidar Z’s skull and created a 3D model of it.
Shanidar Z was a Neanderthal, a species of humanoid thought to have gone extinct 40,000 years ago. Their remains were first discovered in Shanidar Cave in the Zagros Mountains by American anthropologist Ralph Solecki in the 1950s.
“We hope to make the case to UNESCO for Shanidar Cave to be a world heritage site. Kurdistan has only one world heritage site, the citadel in Erbil,” said Barker.
UNESCO is the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization. The purpose of its world heritage list is to protect important historical sites around the world.
According to Barker, body parts of Shanidar Z were previously found by Professor Solecki when he was working at the cave. Solecki found the remains of 10 Neanderthals of different ages, men, women, and children.
The latest excavation has found more remains.
“We have been able to find the remains of two or three Neanderthals, and the best preserved we found is Shanidar Z. We only have found the upper part of her, from her head, her arms down to her waist, we think her legs are part of a group that professor Solecki has found,” Barker said.
The remains of Shanidar Z were found about eight meters below the surface.
In 2014, the archeological department of the Soran administration signed a contract with the University of Cambridge allowing the British team to do research in Erbil province’s Shanidar Cave. The contract was renewed this year.
“As per the contract, the pieces that have been found should be subject to testing abroad but should later be returned to Kurdistan and the skull will be returned and added to Kurdistan Region’s museum in a formal ceremony,” Abdulwahab Sulaiman, head of Soran administration’s archeological department, told Rudaw’s Zhyar Hakim earlier this month.
The return of Shanidar Z to the Kurdistan Region will generate greater interest in the history of the Kurdistan Region, according to Barker.
“Shanidar Z, the skull, will come back and it will be more famous, much much more famous because of the film. The film has started great public interest, but there is huge scientific interest all over the world,” Barker said.
He is unsure of when the skull will be returned. “I think you have heard about five years and it is about right. But I think it will be harmful for Kurdistan if we try to set a date and say, half studied, this must come back,” he said.
Barker reiterated that the skull belongs to the Kurdistan Region, and it will not remain in Cambridge following the study.
"Everything we study goes to England for study, and comes back here, it doesn't belong to me, it doesn't belong to Cambridge, it belongs to Kurdistan," he said.
Shanidar Cave, today one of the Kurdistan Region’s most popular and picturesque tourist attractions, is a priceless vault of Paleolithic treasures.
The area is also rich with wild fauna, including wolves, deer, rodents, scorpions, and camel spiders.
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