BRITAIN-IRIAQ-ARCHAEOLOGY-NEANDERTHAL

Associate Professor in the Evolution of Health, Diet and Disease, Dr Emma Pomeroy, poses for a photograph with the rebuilt skull and a physical reconstruction of the face and head, of a 75,000-year-old Neanderthal woman, named Shanidar Z, at the University of Cambridge, eastern England, on April 25, 2024. A UK team of archaeologists on Thursday revealed the reconstructed face of a 75,000-year-old Neanderthal woman as researchers reappraise the perception of the species as brutish and unsophisticated. Emma Pomeroy, the Cambridge palaeo-anthropologist who uncovered Shanidar Z, said finding her skull and upper body had been both "exciting" and "terrifying". Named Shanidar Z after the cave in Iraqi Kurdistan where her skull was found in 2018, the latest discovery has led experts to probe the mystery of the forty-something Neanderthal woman laid to rest in a sleeping position beneath a huge vertical stone marker. (Photo by Justin TALLIS / AFP) / TO GO WITH AFP STORY by Helen ROWE (Photo by JUSTIN TALLIS/AFP via Getty Images)