They are also, in their own way, the most interesting part of the story.

What the Shanidar Z Case Changed

The 2020 and 2023 publications from the Cambridge excavation changed several things in the field.

They provided the most carefully documented description of the Shanidar burial cluster yet produced — with three-dimensional spatial data, micro-stratigraphic analysis, and contamination-controlled pollen sampling that had not been available to Solecki.

This documentation does not settle the flower burial debate, but it raises the quality of the evidence available to inform it.

They demonstrated that significant new Neanderthal material remained in the cave, outside the areas Solecki had excavated.