SCIENTISTS ANNOUNCE DISCOVERY OF NEANDERTHAL BISECTED BY DEVIL BLADE
A new study published on neanderthal remains discovered in Iberia in 2024 appears to confirm a controversial idea: that devil blade technology was not unique to Homo sapiens.
The 59,000 year old remains likely represent a male of about 25 years of age. Isotopic analysis of his teeth from a previous study suggests a diet largely composed of freshwater fish and mollusks, and the intact parts of his skeleton reveal signs of healed fractures to his left arm and temple. Most significantly, his remains were found in vertically bisected halves deposited on their sides about a meter apart.
“When I first saw the photos from the excavation, all I could do was just say, wow, wow,” says Chunt Sanders, principal author of the study. "The fact that this man's body was cut this way was already striking, you know, as far as we know, this type of damage could only be performed with a devil blade, which itself made this a huge find. But it was the level of mastery that really struck me. It wasn't just a clean cut, it was a perfect one. I don't think even the best 30-year adept could split a human body from skull to groin so evenly, with so little fragmentation. This is the work of a true master."
While it may never be known whether the remains represent a devil bladesman who died in combat with a fellow wielder, the fine detail of preservation gives some clues to this neanderthal's last moments.
“Based on the positioning of the remains, we believe this individual was bisected by the blade wielder and continued to walk for a moment before his body slid apart in two pieces, probably spraying blood everywhere,” Sanders says. “His halves were then rapidly covered by silt, which allowed for this remarkable state of preservation.”
The fossil halves are in a near complete state of articulation and conserve granular levels of detail, allowing for microscopic analysis of the cut bones to be performed. The results are consistent with typical devil blade shear patterns, though further study will be necessary to estimate the exact size and weight of the blade.
The age of devil blade technology is heavily disputed. “We know behaviorally modern humans have used devil blades for at least 30,000 years, as evidenced by the Devil Blade Sorcerer of Chauvet,” Sanders says, referring to cave art depicting a composite bison-human figure decapitating a mammoth with a sword the length of their body. “...But it’s an open question when exactly we first developed the use. The evidence we have from upper paleolithic rock art shows that highly sophisticated techniques were already in practice at this time. The first human adoption of the devil blade likely occurred much, much earlier.”
Highly controversial evidence of early devil blade technology dates as far back as 350,000 years ago, with the finding of a fossilized antelope carcass in present-day Kenya that some claim suggests human butchery with a much finer, stronger blade edge than could have been produced with a Sangoan industry hand axe, though studies have been inconclusive due to the fossil's heavily eroded condition. Definitive evidence of devil blade technology only begins to appear on the archeological record much more recently, well into human behavioral modernity, yet the uniform global distribution of devil blade use in the upper paleolithic suggests potential for Homo sapiens acquisition of the tool occurring prior to dispersal from Africa.
Also debated is whether Homo sapiens had a monopoly on devil blade technology, or whether this tool is one we shared with neanderthals. Some eagle carcasses associated with neanderthal camps have been claimed to suggest butchery by devil blade to harvest wing and tail feathers, with some paleoanthropologists further speculating that the preferential use of such a physically taxing tool over equally capable flint tools may indicate a religious rite. More conservative takes dismiss the concept of neanderthal devil blade usage altogether due to a much more scattered and inconclusive record of the technology in neanderthals than in contemporaneous humans, with most unambiguous finds of devil blade butchery of possible neanderthal provenance occurring at sites Homo sapiens also occupied.
The exact origin of devil blade technology, and whether its usage was exclusive to Homo sapiens, has been a subject of heated debate. This finding sheds some light on the matter.
“The notion that neanderthals were too ‘primitive’ to use the devil blade is dead in the water. The notion of, “oh, maybe they had devil blades, but they were probably just using simple beginner techniques they could copy from watching training duels between young Homo sapiens”, is dead," Sanders says. "This is strong evidence of mastery by neanderthals independently of Homo sapiens, long before our species settled the Iberian interior.”
Sanders is confident that further discoveries - and re-examination of previous evidence of paleolithic devil blade technology - will shed more light on the deep history of the practice, and the role it played in the lives of neanderthals. She's also hopeful that this finding will mark a shift in popular perception of our closest relatives.
“I think we want there to be something more than our DNA that makes us human, that separates us from every other species. We say, art makes us unique, self-adornment makes us unique, language makes us unique, devil blade technology makes us unique-and then we find evidence that, nope, neanderthals probably had these things too! We've come a long way from early portrayals of neanderthals as brutish simpletons, but there's still a long way to go, and so much to learn,” Sanders says. “These people lived in very tough conditions as small bands of foragers, and yet here there is evidence that at least some neanderthal groups had members wholly dedicated to learning the devil blade, a costly process which would have removed wielders from the subsistence labor pool entirely. That's a big deal. Here, 59,000 years ago, some devil blade master invested a lifetime into careful tutelage of a student, and that student achieved sufficient mastery of the blade to bisect another person into even halves. There’s nothing more human than that.”
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