The Team
Project Directors
Project Director
Disney Professor of Archaeology Emeritus and Senior Fellow, McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research, and Senior Fellow, St John's College, University of Cambridge, UK
Project Co-Director
School of Biological and Environmental Sciences, Liverpool John Moores University, UK
Project Co-Director
Senior Lecturer, Department of Classics, History, and Archaeology, Birkbeck University of London, UK
Team members and collaborators
Archaeobotany
Department of Archaeology, Classics and Egyptology, University of Liverpool, UK
Professor Paul Bennett
Excavation
Director (Retired), Canterbury Archaeological Trust and Canterbury Christ Church University, UK
Zooarchaeologist
Austrian Archaeological Institute —Prehistory, Austrian Academy of Sciences, Austria
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Radiocarbon dating
Centre of Research and Education in Environmental Geosciences, Aix Marseille University, France
Dr Lucy Farr
Sediment Micromorphology
McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research, University of Cambridge, UK
Sediment micromorphology
Senior Fellow, McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research, University of Cambridge, UK
Radiocarbon dating
Department of Evolutionary Anthropology, University of Vienna, Austria
Michael Hitchcock
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Lithic microwear analysis and experimental archaeology
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Liverpool John Moores University, UK
James Holman
Excavator
Contracts Manager, Canterbury Archaeological Trust, UK
Lithic analysis
McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research, University of Cambridge, UK
Archaeobotanical analyses
Department of Archaeology, Classics and Egyptology, University of Liverpool, UK
Ross Lane
Excavator
Project Officer, Canterbury Archaeological Trust, UK
Conservator
McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research, University of Cambridge and IPHES, Spain
Professor Marta Mirazón Lahr
Osteology
Professor in Human Evolutionary Biology and Prehistory, Department of Archaeology, University of Cambridge
Use-wear analysis
ISMEO (International Association for Mediterranean and Oriental Studies), Rome, Italy
Co-Investigator, Palaeoanthropology
Associate Professor, Department of Archaeology, and Fellow, Newnham College, University of Cambridge, UK
Geneviève Protière
Post-excavation
Associate Researcher, CNRS UMR 8167, Paris, France
OSL dating
Research Laboratory for Archaeology and History of Art, University of Oxford, UK
Jessica Twyman
Excavator
Senior Archaeologist, Canterbury Archaeological Trust, UK
Department of Antiquities Representatives
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Jegir Khalil
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Sherzad Hasko
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Dlshad Abdulmutalb
Past Team Members
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Ella Al-Shamahi
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Bill Boismier
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Dr Marta Fiacconi
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David Matzliach
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Hazel Moseley
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Dr Eóin Parkinson
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Dr David Simpson
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Alex Vokes
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Dr Jeremy Bennett
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Dr Lucile Crete
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Thom Kerr
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William Mills
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Dr Andreas Nymark
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Ana Predoi
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Dr Andy Shuttleworth
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Dr Ghanim Wahida
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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Read more about the discovery of the Neanderthal remains known as 'Shanidar Z', and the ongoing research into their life and death
Publications, media and resources​
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Find our scientific and popular publications here, plus other resources about Shanidar Cave