4,000 years ago he was shot in the Pyrenees: his rib has been found with an arrow stuck in it.

A human rib more than 4,000 years old , pierced by a flint arrowhead, high in the Spanish Pyrenees . That's what a group of archaeologists from Spain has found, revealing that the individual it belonged to lived during the Early Bronze Age. And, curiously, the brutal trauma wasn't fatal, according to the investigation.

The individual survived, and the bone around the wound healed, meaning he lived out the rest of his life with the flint arrowhead embedded in his rib, Live Science reports. Archaeologists found the bone during recent excavations at a prehistoric burial cave known as Roc de les Orenetes in the Catalan Pyrenees.

The sex or age of the person injured at the time of death has not yet been reported, but the statement said he was shot in the back: "It remained lodged in the bone, which shows signs of healing, indicating that the person survived for some time after the injury."

Excavations at Roc de les Orenetes have been underway since 2019 and are directed by Carlos Tornero (a prehistoric archaeologist at the Autonomous University of Barcelona). So far , more than a thousand human bones have been found in the cave, and carbon dating places the burials between 4,100 and 4,500 years ago.

"The arrow was shot through the back and remained lodged in the bone, which shows signs of healing."

In fact, according to a study published last year in the American Journal of Biological Anthropology , at least 51 people of various ages and both sexes were buried in the cave. And at least six people are known to have been involved in fatal fights. The wounds identified in this preliminary analysis were primarily located on the upper body , particularly the upper limbs and ribs; in one case, a person's forearm was even amputated.

"This evidence represents recurrent violent behavior and evidence of interpersonal violence at the highest altitude in the Pyrenees —at 1,836 meters above sea level," the researchers wrote. Even in the most adverse geographical conditions, it is clear that small-scale conflicts arose, resulting in injuries and deaths.

The Roc de les Orenetes cave is one of the few high mountain burial sites in Europe with such a large and well-preserved human assemblage, offering a unique insight into the lives, deaths and social dynamics (including episodes of violence) of Bronze Age mountain communities . The newly discovered rib with the embedded arrowhead will now undergo X-ray microtomography analysis, as well as chemical and DNA analysis , to learn more about the lives and deaths of the people buried in the Roc de les Orenetes cave four millennia ago.