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National Geographic

4,000-year-old victim was shot in the back—and survived with an arrow to the rib

A flint arrowhead lodged in a rib from a person who lived in the Spanish Pyrenees more than 4,000 years ago was most likely shot during a skirmish with a rival clan, researchers say. "It is direct evidence of a violent conflict episode," says Carlos Tornero, who led the team that unearthed the rib in a mountain cave 6,000 feet above sea level near the Spanish-French border. His team announced the finding July 8. Previous excavations at the cave—called Roc de les Orenetes, or "Rock of the Swallows" in Catalan—unearthed thousands of human bones. Some had fractures and cut marks apparently caused by stone-tipped spears, arrows, and copper or bronze axes and daggers. The researchers published their analysis of the bones last year and concluded the injuries came from conflicts with other groups. This latest finding reinforces that idea. The interior of the cave as seen from the entrance. Photograph by Leo Pérez, IPHES-CERCA "This extraordinary discovery is direct proof, and confirms our initial hypothesis," says Tornero, an archaeologist at the Autonomous University of Barcelona (UAB) and a researcher at the Catalan Institute of Human Paleoecology and Social Evolution (IPHES-CERCA). Little is known about who shot the arrow, except that they were probably from an enemy group who fought violently against the people later buried in the cave—in a dispute over territory, or perhaps access to resources. The researchers dated the violent episodes to between 2550 and 2150 B.C. Tornero says the victims in the cave were likely from a single clan of Early Bronze Age farming people; but their attackers may have been nomadic hunters. The archer shot this individual from behind so the arrow lodged in their back, within the rib cage but below the shoulder blade. "Undoubtedly, the person who was struck had little ability to react in time to avoid it," says Tornero. Excavation work at the Roc de les Orenetes site, where human remains dating to 2400 BC can be seen in the foreground. Photograph by Leo Pérez, IPHES-CERCA The moment of the discovery of a flint arrowhead with a broken tip, dated to 2400 BC. Photograph by Iván Ramírez, IPHES-CERCA Each arrowhead found in the cave was likely once embedded in the flesh of the dead people interred there, he says. But this individual did not die from their arrow wound—instead, the rib bone shows signs of healing that indicate the victim lived for a long time after their close encounter with death, Tornero says. Roc de les Orenetes was discovered in 1969, and the remains of 60 bodies—many bearing scars from battle—have since been unearthed there, although only one-third of the site has been excavated, according to Tornero. The newly found arrowhead is another indicator of the violent conflicts in prehistory, as well as final proof for Tornero that the ancient people buried at Roc de les Orenetes were sometimes the victims of violence—and may have been the perpetrators of deadly violence in return.