‘As an earth scientist I have flown all over the world – but sitting next to a Neanderthal skeleton was surreal’ Professor Chris Hunt, from Liverpool John Moores University, has travelled all over the world for his research including Libya and Iraq

Christopher Hunt has flown all over the world for his work as an earth scientist but it’s not every day that you’re sat next to a potentially 90,000-year-old skeleton.

This was the situation the Liverpool-based professor found himself in last summer when an exciting find resulted in some rather unusual travel arrangements.

Professor Hunt, 62, has been working with a small team of archaeologists at the Shanidar cave in the Kurdish region of northern Iraq every summer since 2014.

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Neanderthal remains

The cave has been a highly significant site ever since an American archaeologist called Ralph Solecki discovered the remains of 10 Neanderthals there around 60 years ago.

With scientific methods more limited than they are now, it was difficult to properly preserve the finds and test the soil for clues about how they lived and interacted with their climate.

It is these missing parts of the jigsaw that Mr Hunt and the rest of the team have been trying to piece together.

The re-excavation is hard work – temperatures in the cave can climb into the high 40s Celsius – but there have been rewards along the way.

Last year the team discovered the skull and upper body of another Neanderthal. “They are once in a generation finds,” says Mr Hunt. “It was very, very exciting.”

It was this which led the academic, who teaches at Liverpool’s John Moores University, to his flight back with the remains strapped into the next seat, as reported by Times Higher Education magazine week.

It was, he admits, rather surreal. “The pressure changes that happen in the hold and the temperature changes are much more extreme than those that happen in the cabin,” he explains.

“The last thing we wanted to do is fly with a Neanderthal in the state that this was. When we first found it the bones had the consistency of a well-done digestive.

“The excavation was extremely tricky because we have to be careful not to scar the surface of it and you had to be careful when you lifted it.”

The team managed to stabilise the remains by coating them in a soluble type of plastic, after which they were wrapped in bubble wrap and carefully packed into the suitcase.

Precious cargo

“You really don’t want to give it any shocks it doesn’t need,” he goes on. “So if you are carrying it you are in control to a bit more of an extent.

“These are very precious and very rare things. You have got this obligation to science and also to the Kurds who have allowed us to take it out of the country for conservation and study.

“It all has to go back so what we don’t want to come back is basically a bag of pulp because this will be the centrepiece of their new museum.”

It is one of just many unique situations in which Mr Hunt, who describes himself as “a sort of dirt specialist”, has found himself over the course of his four decades in earth science.

His research has taken him everywhere from Libya and Italy to Vietnam and Jordan.

Around three years ago he travelled to Borneo, where he spent time living in the rainforest with the indigenous Kelabit people.

In addition to the Shanidar remains, the trip proved another highlight of Mr Hunt’s career.

“We discovered that people 53,000 years ago had been controlling the forest with fire,” he says.

“That was a special moment. Signs of a similar thing had been found in Papua New Guinea a couple of years after I first proposed that.

“We tend to think of tropical forests as untouched places where people wander in the green wilderness but actually they were in charge of the green wilderness from almost when they got in.”

Mr Hunt believes his research shows such places are anything but the “backwards” reputation that they have been given in some circles.

Hidden treasures

Caves are one of his favourite environments to explore, not least because of the way they manage to preserve their treasures – incidentally not gold, something he has never found.

Outside, archaeological evidence can messed up or eroded “but in caves it tends to sit there for a long time”, he explains.

An important aspect of his work is helping to give something back to the local communities, whether it be passing on knowledge or simply providing extra support.

“Working in the Middle East and north Africa I always felt like I had to apologise for what the British had done to them,” he admits.

“We have always tried to work with local authorities and groups and not to be the great imperialistic Britain again.

“I think if you approach people as partners, jointly you can do great things that you couldn’t do independently.

“They have the local knowledge and often have enormous insight, we happen to have a bag of scientific tricks which, where possible, we try to pass on.”

Ultimately, he just feels “incredibly lucky” to have been able to work on so many interesting projects.

“I still pinch myself after all these years that people pay me to do these things and go to these places,” he says. “It’s pretty amazing.”