Three Adult Neanderthal Skeletons From 
Shanidar Cave, Northern Iraq 
By Raupx S. SoLecki 
Department of Anthropology 
Columbia University 
[With 12 plates] 
Tue rECOvERY of three adult Neanderthal skeletons in Shanidar 
Cave, northern Iraq, by the Third Shanidar expedition in 1957 pro- 
vides important new data for the study of Early Man. This arche- 
ological expedition, sponsored by the Smithsonian Institution,’ made 
further contributions to our knowledge of the early cultures of Iraq, 
preliminary announcements of which have been published (Solecki, 
1957a, b, c, d, 1958, 1959a, b; Solecki and Rubin, 1958). 
The purpose of this paper is to describe the circumstances of the 
discoveries of the Neanderthal skeletons; to indicate their strati- 
graphic relationships to one another and their positions in the cave 
deposits; and to provide such information on the individuals repre- 
sented as could be interpreted from the archeological remains. A 
provisional correlation is made between the Shanidar skeletons and 
other Middle Paleolithic skeletons in the Near East. The morpholog- 
ical descriptions of the Shanidar Neanderthals are left to my col- 
league Dr. T. D. Stewart, of the U.S. National Museum, Smithsonian 
Institution. In his special field, Dr. Stewart has assumed the obliga- 
tion of the restoration, description, and evaluation of these Mousterian 
age remains (Stewart, 1958, 1959). 
1The Third Shanidar Expedition was supported by grants from several organizations, 
including the American Philosophical Society, the William Bayard Cutting Traveling 
Fellowship of Columbia University, the National Science Foundation, the Bruce Hughes 
Fund of the Smithsonian Institution, and the Wenner-Gren Foundation for Anthropolog- 
ical Research. The Iraq Petroleum Co., Ltd., graciously lent material aid and assistance 
to the expedition in Iraq. The Directorate General of Antiquities of Iraq, as in the 1951 
and 1953 seasons, extended its cooperation. The work of these seasons has been pub- 
lished in preliminary statements and reports (Solecki, 1952a, b, 1953a, b, 1955a, b, ec; 
microfilm). The field personnel of the Third Shanidar Expedition included the author 
and his wife, Dr. Rose f. Solecki, archeologist of Columbia University; Philip Smith, 
archeologist of Peabody Museum, Harvard University; and George Maranjian, physical 
anthropologist, of the Arabian-American Oil Co. at Dhahran, Saudi Arabia. 
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