The skull of a child of around 12 years of age at time of death found among other human remains at Qafzeh in Israel. This individual - Qafzeh 11 - suffered a compound cranial trauma, indicated with arrows, with signs of healing. This individual was buried after people cared for him, possibly for an extended period of time.
Dr. Johnn Hawks, a world renown paleoanthropologist, has written:
There is growing evidence of healthcare in the archaeological and skeletal record of hominins. In our article we point to some of the famous cases, like the KNM-ER 1808 individual, who lived around 1.6 million years ago and survived for some time with debilitating and painful periosteal reaction and cortical bone thickening. In the Middle Pleistocene, the case of craniosynostosis of the Cranium 14 individual from Sima de los Huesos is notable; in the Late Pleistocene record, Neanderthals with evidence of extensive osteoarthritis, losses of limbs, and near-complete loss of teeth are also very well known.
Some of the humans buried at Qafzeh Cave were covered with red ocher, a symbolic blood covering, suggesting the hope for life after death.
Read more here: Bringing emotional cognition to deep time - John Hawks
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