SKELETONS FROM SHANIDAR CAVE—SOLECKI 627 
were then packed in a large wooden box filled with cotton, and not 
touched again at the laboratory at Shanidar or unpacked for reexami- 
nation in Baghdad. It was not until the remains were examined and 
compared at the U.S. National Museum in Washington that the true 
nature of Shanidar IIT was disclosed. 
Speaking at a lecture in the Smithsonian Institution on February 
27, 1959, Dr. Stewart revealed that Shanidar III, probably a male, 
had had a blade stuck between two of his ribs. Evidence showed that 
there had been some healing of the bone. Presumably Shanidar III 
had been disabled in a conflict with unfriendly neighbors and was 
recuperating when he was killed by a rockfall. 
Judging from stratigraphic position, it appears that Shanidar ITI 
lay in a relatively thin occupational stratum which was further com- 
pressed, like a sandwich filling, between two stone layers. In the 
vicinity of the neighboring hearths mentioned above, the stratum 
measured 45 cm. thick. In the vicinity of the skeletal remains, the 
stratum measured about 30 cm. thick. There is a striking similarity 
between the situation of Shanidar I{I and Shanidar I, less than 3 m. 
away. Both skeletons were found in shallow occupational deposits 
between two rockfalls. However, the two could not be contemporary, 
since the occupational layer of Shanidar I, as well as the 40 cm.-thick 
rockfall which covered Shanidar III, separated them stratigraph- 
ically. The difference in position probably represents in years less 
than a millennium. 
The Shanidar III occupational layer dipped markedly toward the 
west. The soil was a light-brown loam, containing flecks of char- 
coal, mammal bone fragments, flint flakes and several artifacts. The 
latter included a Mousterian point, a thick “circular” scraper and a 
discoid core flake. At about the 5.0-m. depth was much evidence of a 
rockfall, the one which killed Shanidar III. At about a depth of 
4.5 m. was found an occupational deposit which seems to have been 
an extension of the Shanidar I layer. One broken Mousterian point 
and other Mousterian-type artifacts were found in this horizon. 
This marked the top of the layer containing Mousterian remains in 
this quarter. Overlying it was found a rockfall probably represent- 
ing the same one which killed Shanidar I. The first signs of the 
Baradostian culture above Shanidar III appeared at a depth of 
4.25 m. 
THE ROCKFALLS IN SHANIDAR CAVE AND THE COMPARATIVE 
STRATIGRAPHY 
Translated from mute stones and earth, the stratigraphy in which 
the skeletal remains were found reveals a succession of occupations 
which were from time to time shattered by large or small rockfalls. 
