A well-preserved human skeleton that scientists recently excavated in Vietnam dates back about 12,000 years ago to the Ice Age and contains the oldest human mitochondrial DNA found in the region. It belonged to a man who died when he was around 35 years old after being pierced in the neck by a projectile with a tip made of quartz that showed signs of human workmanship.

But the man didn’t die right away; analysis of his damaged cervical rib bone revealed signs of tissue growth and an infection that likely caused his death, scientists reported Tuesday in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences . The man may have lived for months after being wounded until he died and was buried in a cave site named Thung Binh 1 in what is now Tràng An Landscape Complex , a UNE

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