Interpersonal violence or hunting accident among the last hunter-gatherers? A flint projectile embedded in a thoracic vertebra from the Early Neolithic site of Tell Mureybet, Syria

Abstract

The site of Tell Mureybet in Syria yielded several human remains, partly dated from the Pre-Pottery Neolithic B (8300-8200 BC), including a skeleton from an incomplete primary burial (grave 3) excavated in 1974. The study of the bones helps us to reconstruct the plausible cause of death, a thoraco-abdominal fatal wound caused by an arrow shot in the chest. This is clearly evidenced by the presence of a flint arrowhead embedded in the 10th thoracic vertebra. The X-rays, CT-scan and 3D reconstruction of the vertebra and the arrowhead allow two hypotheses regarding this death : a hunting accident or a case of interpersonal violence.