Around 17,000 years ago, a man fell victim to a bloody ambush in what is now Italy, with an enemy launching sharp, flint-tipped projectiles that left gashes on his thigh and shin bones, a new study finds.
Researchers have known about this man, called Tagliente 1, since 1973, when his remains were uncovered during excavations at the Riparo Tagliente rock shelter in northeastern Italy. But the circumstances around his death had been a mystery. Now, a new discovery of cut marks on his leg bones reveals that this hunter-gatherer had a violent death, researchers reported in the study, which was published on April 28 in the journal Scientific Reports.
