202
S
ome 430,000 years ago, high
in the Atapuerca Mountains
of northern Spain, a lethal
assault was committed. The
victim, a young adult Neanderthal,
received two blows to the head,
just above the left eye. These were
made by the same implement, but
from different angles, suggesting
two separate, deliberate strikes.
At some point after his or her
death, the victim’s corpse was
dropped down a 13-metre (43-ft)
vertical shaft into a pit within a
cave complex. The remains lay
undisturbed until an international
team of archaeologists discovered
the site – dubbed the Sima de los
Huesos (“Pit of Bones”) – in 1984.
Historic revelations
The victim’s skull – known as
Cranium 17 – was found smashed
into 52 fragments, among more
than 6,500 bones belonging to at
least 28 early human individuals
unearthed from the underground
cave. It is not clear how the bodies
ended up there, but it is believed
they may have been deliberately
deposited in the pit after death.
This suggests that early humans
began burying – or at least
collecting – their dead far earlier
than was previously thought.
Scientific analysis of the victim’s
skull, which included a CT scan
and a 3D model, led researchers to
conclude that the owner of Cranium
17 had not died as the result of an
accident, but by violence inflicted
by a fellow Neanderthal. It may
represent the first case of murder
in human history. ■
AN UNUSUALLY CLEAR
CASE, LIKE A
“SMOKING GUN”
THE NEANDERTHAL MURDER, 430,000 YEARS AGO
IN CONTEXT
LOCATION
Atapuerca Mountains,
northern Spain
THEME
Earliest known murder
AFTER
5000 bce In an early Neolithic
settlement in southwest
Germany, 500 people – babies,
children, and adults – are
killed and cannibalized.
392–201 bce In Ireland, two
men are tortured and killed as
part of a ritual sacrifice and
their bodies dumped in a peat
bog. Their mummified remains
are found by workmen in 2003.
c. 367 ce At Vindolanda,
a Roman fort near Hadrian’s
Wall in Britain, a 10-year-old
child is killed by a blow to the
head and buried in a pit in
a barrack room floor. The
skeleton is discovered in 2010.
Modern forensic techniques were
used to study the angle of the two
fractures at the front of Cranium 17,
and recreate impact trajectories. The
results supported the murder theory.
202-203_Neanderthal_Giuliano.indd 202 02/12/2016 17:15
203
See also: Sadamichi Hirasawa 224–25 ■ Elizabeth Báthory 264–65
■ The Dreyfus Affair 310–11
O
ne October night in 1761,
Marc-Antoine Calas was
found hanged in his father
Jean’s textile shop. Deep in debt,
the Frenchman was believed to
have killed himself. His untimely
death was a personal tragedy for
his family, but as Huguenots
(Protestants) living in a resolute
and unforgiving Roman Catholic
country, their problems had just
begun. Crowds gathered and
suspicion ran rampant: it was said
that Marc-Antoine had been on the
brink of converting to Catholicism,
and that his father must have killed
him to prevent this. Jean Calas was
arrested by the authorities, along
with four other suspects.
A gruesome trial
The Toulouse magistrate asked
witnesses to come forward. Their
testimony was merely hearsay, but
in 18th-century France, that was
accepted as evidence. Calas’s case
went to an appellate court, which
voted to convict and condemn him.
The sentence called for Calas to be
interrogated under torture, in the
hope that he would confess and
implicate his four co-conspirators.
But Calas steadfastly protested his
innocence. He was then broken on
the wheel, strangled, and burned.
Soon after, the philosopher
Voltaire took up Calas’s case,
believing he had been wrongly
executed. In a press campaign,
Voltaire convinced many that the
judiciary had allowed prejudice
against Huguenots to influence the
verdict. After a three-year crusade,
Calas’s conviction was overturned. ■
MURDER CASES
PERPETRATED
WITH THE SWORD
OF JUSTICE
JEAN CALAS, 1761
IN CONTEXT
LOCATION
Toulouse, France
THEME
Wrongful execution
BEFORE
1673 American colonial settler
Rebecca Cornell dies in an
accidental house fire. But her
son Thomas, with whom she
did not get along, is hanged
for her murder after hearsay is
offered as evidence at his trial.
AFTER
1785 Anna Göldi, a Swiss
maidservant to a physician, is
accused of witchcraft by her
employer (and rejected lover)
and executed. In 2007, the
Swiss parliament declares the
case a miscarriage of justice.
1922 In Australia, Colin
Campbell Ross is hanged for
the murder of a 12-year-old girl.
The case is re-examined using
modern forensic techniques,
and Ross is posthumously
pardoned in 2008.
It would seem that fanaticism
is angry at the success of
reason, and combats it ever
more f u r iou sly.
Voltaire
202-203_Neanderthal_Giuliano.indd 203 02/12/2016 15:03