World's Oldest Murder

Researchers think they may have found a skull evidencing the earliest recorded murder in human history. The skull was found in the Sima de los Huesos—“pit of bones”—cave in northern Spain. Scientists are unsure how the skulls ended up in the cave, but believe they are about 430,000 years old.

Sima de los Huesos hominins lived in what is now Spain about 400,000 years ago.

This situates them in the middle of the Pleistocene age, a time during which humans evolved into their present incarnation. Scientists used 3D imaging to analyze the shape and trajectory of each wound on the skull.

They argue that each of the two wounds appears to have been caused by the same object, but that the wound is from at least two blows.

Researchers