Publications
Publications from the Shanidar Cave Project team or using data from the project
Academic articles
2022
Kabukcu, C., Hunt, C., Hill, E., Pomeroy, E., Reynolds, T., Barker, G., Asouti, E. In press. Cuisine before farming: Carbonized food residues reveal processing and cooking of plants in the Palaeolithic. Antiquity.
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Reynolds, T., Hunt, C. O., Hill, E., Tilby, E., Pomeroy, E., Burke, A., & Barker, G. 2022. The Zagros Mousterian: The view from Shanidar Cave. L''Anthropologie, 126(3): 103045.
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Tilby, E., Miracle, P., & Barker, G. 2022. The microvertebrates of Shanidar Cave: Preliminary taphonomic findings. Quaternary, 5(1), 4.
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2020
Pomeroy, E., Bennett, P., Hunt, C. O., Reynolds, T., Farr, L., Frouin, M., Holman, J., Lane, R., French, C., & Barker, G. 2020. New Neanderthal remains associated with the ‘flower burial’ at Shanidar Cave. Antiquity 94(373), 11-26.
Pomeroy, E., Hunt, C. O., Reynolds, T., Abdulmutalb, D., Asouti, E., Bennett, P., Tim Reynolds, Bosch, M., Burke, A., Farr, L. Foley, R., French, C., Frumkin, A., Goldberg, P., Hill, E., Kabukcu, C., Mirazón Lahr, M., Lane, R., Marean, C., Maureille, B., Mutri, G., Miller, C.E., Mustafa, K.A, Nymark, A., Pettitt, P., Sala, N., Sandgathe, D., Stringer, C., Tilby, E., & Barker, G. 2020. Issues of theory and method in the analysis of Paleolithic mortuary behavior: a view from Shanidar Cave. Evolutionary Anthropology, 29(5), 263-279.
2018
Hunt, C. O., & Fiacconi, M., 2018. Pollen taphonomy of cave sediments: what does the pollen record in caves tell us about external environments and how do we assess its reliability? Quaternary International 485, 68–75.
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Reynolds, T., Farr, L., Hill, E., Hunt, C. O., Jones, S., Gratuze, B., Nymark, A., Abdulmutalb, D., & Barker, G. 2018. Shanidar Cave and the Baradostian, a Zagros Aurignacian industry, L'Anthropologie, 122(5), 737-748
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2017
Barker, G., 2017. A Tale of Three Caves: Why Was Our Species So Successful at Colonising New Environments? Amsterdam: Stichting Nederlands Museum voor Anthropologie en Praehistorie.
Hunt, C.O., Hill, E.A., Reynolds, T., Abdulmutalb, D., Farr, L., Lane, R., Szabó, K., & Barker, G., 2017. An incised shell object from Baradostian (Early Upper Palaeolithic) layers in Shanidar Cave, Iraqi Kurdistan. Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports 14, 318–322.
Pomeroy, E., Mirazón Lahr, M., Crivellaro, F., Farr, L., Reynolds, T., Hunt, C.O., & Barker, G., 2017. Newly discovered Neanderthal remains from Shanidar Cave, Iraqi Kurdistan, and their attribution to Shanidar 5. Journal of Human Evolution 111:102–118.
2016
Fiacconi, M., & Hunt, C. O., 2016. Palynology of surface sediments from caves in the Zagros Mountains (Kurdish Iraq): patterns and processes. Review of Palaeobotany and Palynology 239, 66–76.
Reynolds, T., Boismier, W., Farr, L., Hunt, C., Abdulmultalb, D., & Barker, G., 2016. New investigations at Shanidar Cave, Iraqi Kurdistan. In: K. Kopanias & J. MacGinnis (eds) The Archaeology of the Kurdistan Region of Iraq and Adjacent Regions: 357–360. Oxford: Archaeopress.
2015
Fiacconi, M., & Hunt, C. O., 2015. Pollen taphonomy at Shanidar Cave (Kurdish Iraq): an initial evaluation. Review of Palaeobotany and Palynology 223, 87–93.
Hunt, C.O., Gilbertson, D.D., Hill, E.A., & Simpson, D., 2015. Sedimentation, re-sedimentation and chronologies in archaeologically-important caves: problems and prospects. Journal of Archaeological Science 56, 109–116.
Reynolds, T., Boismier, W., Farr, L., Hunt, C., Abdulmultalb, D., & Barker, G., 2015. New investigations at Shanidar Cave, Iraqi Kurdistan. Antiquity 348: Project Gallery.
Theses
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Tilby, E. 2023. Neanderthal and Modern Human Adaptations to Climate Change in Southwest Asia: Climate Reconstruction of Marine Isotope Stage 5 to 3 based on small mammal records from Shanidar Cave (Iraqi Kurdistan). PhD Thesis, university of Cambridge. doi.org/10.17863/CAM.96380
Nymark Jensen, A. 2021. Middle Palaeolithic technological adaptation in Montane Southwest Asia: a test of the Zagros Mousterian “Summer adaptation hypothesis”. PhD thesis, Birkbeck, University of London.
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Predoi, A. 2018. Investigating the palaeoclimate of the Shanidar Cave, Iraq: An isotopic analysis of C. aegagrus aegagrus teeth. Masters thesis, University of Cambridge.
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Fiacconi, M., 2017. Cave Pollen Taphonomy in Kurdish Iraq​. PhD thesis, Liverpool John Moores University.
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Haines, B. 2016. Can the relative abundance of identified tortoise remains be used as a proxy for temperate conditions over time at the archaeological site of Shanidar Cave, Iraq? Undergraduate thesis, University of Cambridge.
Media
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Talks
Dr Emma Pomeroy discusses the new Neanderthal Discoveries at Shanidar Cave for the Garrod Seminar Series, Department of Archaeology, University of Cambridge in November 2020
Professor Graeme Barker and Dr Emma Pomeroy talk about how our understanding of Neanderthals is changing with new evidence, including the findings from the Shanidar Cave Project in an even for the Cambridge University Alumni Festival in September 2020
News articles
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Coverage of 2022 Antiquity paper on evidence of cooking from Shanidar Cave, November 2022
telegraph.co.uk/news/2022/11/23/cave-find-shows-neanderthals-cared-cookery/
edition.cnn.com/2022/11/22/world/prehistoric-diets-plants-neanderthals-scn/index.html
thetimes.co.uk/article/neanderthal-cook-made-worlds-oldest-flatbread-mjb5gj2rm
spektrum.de/news/steinzeitkueche-wie-raffiniert-steinzeitmenschen-kochten/2080185
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Cambridge University's coverage of the first publication on Shanidar Z, February 2020.
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Scientists discover Neanderthal skeleton that hints at flower burial, The Guardian, February 2020
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Neanderthal 'skeleton' is first found in a decade, BBC News, February 2020
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Is this proof Neanderthals DID bury their dead in elaborate ceremonies? 'Deliberately buried' skeleton of a middle-aged human ancestor who lived 70,000 years ago is found almost intact at 'flower burial' site in Iraq, The Daily Mail, February 2020
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Discovery of 70,000-year-old skeleton sparks 'Neanderthal death ritual' theories, Mirror, February 2020
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New remains discovered at site of famous Neanderthal 'flower burial', Science, January 2019
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Decorated snail shell in a cave in Iraq could be evidence of Paleolithic bling, The Conversation, June 2017
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Archaeologists ousted by ISIS return to ancient Iraqi cave, Nature, October 2015
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Blog posts
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Neanderthal life and death at Shanidar Cave by Dr Tim Reynolds, The British Academy blog, March 2021
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Close encounters? Neanderthals and Homo sapiens in the Middle East by Professor Graeme Barker, Council for British Research in the Levant, October 2020
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Podcasts
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Flowers on graves - funerary practices since the Neanderthals? 23 Minutes Archaeology, June 2021
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Did Neanderthals bury their dead?, Here Be Monsters podcast, May 2020
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Return to Shanidar: An interview with Emma Pomeroy, Archaeocafé, March 2020
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An ancient burial in a famous cave, Science Friday podcast, February 2020
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Interview with Professor Graeme Barker about Shanidar Cave, The Nahrein Network podcast, 2019
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Find out more about the Shanidar Cave Project
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Work by Dr Ralph Solecki and his team from 1951-1960 challenged prevailing ideas about Neanderthals, and put Shanidar Cave on the map
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Find out more about the Project's discoveries, including what the climate was like when Neanderthals and modern humans used the cave, and the kinds of evidence they left behind
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Read more about the discovery of the Neanderthal remains known as 'Shanidar Z', and the ongoing research into their life and death