Each of these findings has been disputed.

The debate about each is a genuine scientific controversy.

But the cumulative weight of evidence has shifted the field substantially toward a view of Neanderthals as cognitively more complex than the traditional model assumed.

In this context, Shanidar Z’s burial evidence is one piece of a larger mosaic.

It neither proves nor disproves Neanderthal ritual capacity on its own.

It contributes to a growing body of evidence that needs to be interpreted as a whole.

Rebuilding the Skull: The Technical Challenge