World's Earliest Murder Victim Found? 430K-Year-Old Skull Located in Spain's 'Pit of Bones'

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A set of remains that is believed to be dated around 430,000 years old was recently found in Spain. Scientists claim the relic belongs to the victim of what is considered to be the world's earliest murder case in human history. 

The victim, whose skull was pieced together, was discovered to have two holes above its left eye, suggesting he might have been clubbed to death twice. The body was then dumped down a cave system shaft in what is now called the Sima de los Huesos (Pit of Bones) in the Atapuerca Mountains of northern Spain.

"This individual was killed in an act of lethal interpersonal violence, providing a window into an often invisible aspect of the social life of our human ancestors," said Nohemi Sala, paleontologist from Madrid's Centro Mixto UCM-ISCIII de Evolución y Comportamiento Humano, according to CBS News. 

"We believe that violence caused the death of this individual. It would be very unlikely to break the cranium twice in nearly the same place, accidentally," Salas added.

According to The Guardian, it seems likely that the victim was murdered and then dumped down the shaft because of the latter's narrow passageway.

The authors of the paper were not sure what kind of weapon was used. But, since metal tools were not yet invented around that time, it would seem a wooden spear or a stone hand ax could have been the culprit of the inflicted blunt force trauma on Cranium 17, reports LA Times.

Sala noted: "The type of injuries, their location, the strong similarity of the fractures in shape and size, and the different orientations and implied trajectories of the two fractures suggest they were produced with the same object in face-to-face interpersonal conflict."

"Given that either of the two traumatic events was likely lethal, the presence of multiple blows implies an intention to kill. It's not possible to have an accident down there if you're already dead," Sala added.

The researchers published their findings on Wednesday in the journal PLOS.

There were 28 skeletal remains found inside the cave, including the skull which was named Cranium 17. Researchers believe that the bones may have belonged to an early Neanderthal or an older ancestor, the Homo heidelbergensis, according to the Belfast Telegraph.

The researchers explained in the findings of the study that violence among early humans didn't come as a shock.

"Violence is a very usual behaviour for animals," said Sala. "It's not surprising that interpersonal violence took place. This represents the earliest clear case of deliberate, lethal interpersonal aggression in the hominin fossil record, demonstrating that this is an ancient human behaviour."