12,000-Year-Old Skeleton Reveals Death Linked To Rare Quartz-Tipped Weapon

Scientists have uncovered a well-preserved human skeleton in northern Vietnam dating back about 12,000 years, to the late Ice Age. The skeleton belonged to a man around 35 years old who was injured by a projectile tipped with quartz, which pierced his neck and fractured an unusual extra rib near his cervical vertebra.

Although the injury did not kill him immediately, signs of infection on the rib suggest he survived for several months before dying, likely due to complications from the wound. The quartz tip found near the injury shows evidence of human craftsmanship, but its unique style raises questions about who made it.

This discovery provides rare insight into life and conflict among hunter-gatherers in Southeast Asia during the Pleistocene era. It also suggests early forms of interpersonal violence in the region, along with hints the man was cared for after his injury, indicating a community presence, scientists reported Tuesday in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences. 

The skeleton was excavated from Thung Binh 1 cave in the Trang An Landscape Complex, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Researchers believe this case is one of the earliest known examples of conflict in mainland Southeast Asia.

Author of the study, Dr Christopher Stimpson, who also oversaw the recovery of the skeleton in the cave, said in a news release, "To recover a skeleton of this age - from around 12,000 years ago - and in this condition is a rarity from this part of the world. The excellent state of preservation permitted detailed analysis of the skeleton and skull, facilitating the testing of different models of biological affinity."

"Furthermore, colleagues from Lundbeck Foundation GeoGenetics Centre, Copenhagen, were able to recover the oldest mtDNA from Vietnam to date, which could also be tested. These investigations revealed a clear affinity with the early hunter-gatherer populations of South and Southeast Asia; as such, TBH1 adds invaluable insights to the slight existing corpus of evidence for this group."

"The recovery of the damaged cervical rib with signs of infection, together with the quartz point, however, surprised everyone. Cervical ribs are rare occurrences in human populations anyway, but the evidence of trauma together with the artefact that caused it is an exceptional find for the region specifically and this time period more generally."