Archaeologists unveil face of Neanderthal woman 75,000 years after she died: "High stakes 3D jigsaw puzzle"

A team of British archaeologists has unveiled the reconstructed face of a Neanderthal woman, named Shanidar Z, who lived 75,000 years ago. Her remains were discovered in a cave in Iraqi Kurdistan in 2018, and her burial suggests Neanderthals had complex social behaviors and possibly conducted funerary rituals.

The reconstruction involved piecing together over 200 fragments of her flattened skull, a process described as a "high stakes 3D jigsaw puzzle." The final facial reconstruction was part of a Netflix documentary, shedding light on Neanderthal life and challenging previous notions of their brutish nature.