pollen

At Shanidar Cave in the Zagros Mountains of the Kurdish region of Iraq, excavations in the 1950s unearthed the remains of a Neanderthal who had apparently been placed on a bed of flowers after his death. This idea came from the discovery of flower pollen embedded in the soil in the cave, in the same excavation layer and beneath the spot where the Neanderthal body was laid to rest. But this interpretation has now been challenged by a team of British researchers who hypothesize that the ancient pollen removed from the cave floor was actually left by bees, who frequently nest in the Zagros Mountain cavern to this very day. [[{"type":"media","view_mode":"media_large","fid":"111436","attributes":{"alt":"The interior of Shanidar Cave, where the deposits of pollen