SHANIDAR CAVE — SOLECKI 419 



cerninfi: the morphology of the Shaiiidur child. According to Dr. D. 

 F. Veldkamp, professor of dentistry at the Royal College of Dentistry 

 in Bagdad, the teeth, by modern standards, would appear to belong 

 to a child about 9 months old. The cranial fragments seem to be 

 thicker than the normal for a child of that age. Although it may be 

 possible to reconstruct the calvarium from the fragments preserved, 

 the face is, unfortunately, beyond reconstruction, since none of the 

 facial parts were recovered. The teeth are the best- preserved parts 

 of this individual, and it is expected that much can be learned from 

 them, even though they are not adult. 



The heaviest concentrations of artifactual materials were found 

 clustered around two horizons within the heavy occupational zone 

 of Layer D. One of these was at about 2-1 to 27 feet (7.32 to 8.23 m.) , 

 and the other was at about 30 to 31 feet (9.14 to 9.45 m.) from the sur- 

 face. Very few worked bones, including bone points, were found (fig. 

 10, ^) . In greatest abundance were tlie flint points and scrapers. The 

 points were both symmetrical and asymmetrical in shape, the former 

 being proportionally more numerous. The majority of the symmetri- 

 cally shaped points appear to be relatively broad and flat, or narrow 

 with thick, keeled cross sections. Among the asymmetric curved points 

 only one good example of a curved-backed point was found. Side 

 scrapers made on broad flake blades were very abundant. There was 

 a small percentage of borers and notched flakes. At least one limace 

 (slug-shaped flint) was present. A fairly large percentage of simply 

 retouched points on flakes was found, suggesting that the stone arti- 

 sans were quick to take advantage of a likely-shaped flake. A pre- 

 liminary check of the collection shows that no gravers are present in 

 the series. Garrod (1930, p. 35) found four at the cave of Hazer 

 Merd, together with two hand axes, which were not present at Shani- 

 dar. Another point of difference with Hazer Merd is that, whereas no 

 cores were found there (Garrod, op. cit., p. 33), a fair number were 

 recovered at Shanidar. These were rather amorphous-shaped, and 

 of medium to small size. There is a surprisingly poor showing of dis- 

 coids, or cores that may be classed in the discoid category. It would 

 seem that material was scarce, and the core was broken down or ex- 

 hausted to the last flake that could be extracted. As at Hazer Merd, 

 the raw material evidently consisted of river pebbles of medium size, 

 which probably accounts for the relatively small size of the artifacts. 

 The use of the prepared striking or faceted platforms was known. 

 It may be stated tentatively that the flakes were struck off with end 

 blows, not side blows. 



On first impression, with the exception of the gravers and the hand 

 axas, the flint artifacts of Hazer Merd cave could be matched type 

 for type with examples from Layer D. Furthermore, there is a 



