News + Trends
Astrophysics: This star is too young to be old
by Spektrum der Wissenschaft
Bulgarian lion chews up young Bulgarian man
10.12.2025
Translation: machine translated
A Copper Age skeleton shows severe injuries caused by a predatory cat. The man survived. His grave reveals astonishing medical skills.
Around 6000 years ago, a young man in the east of what is now Bulgaria encountered a dangerous feline predator: he was attacked and seriously injured by a lion. However, he not only survived the attack, but also recovered, at least temporarily, as the examination of his skeleton by Nadezhda Karastoyanova from the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences and her research group testifies. And not only that, because the archaeologists found other skeletons in the man's burial site, which already indicate good medical knowledge in the Copper Age community by the standards of the time.
The remains were discovered in a large burial site near Kozareva Mogila, which was built between 4600 and 4200 BC. It also contained the skeleton of the man, who was between 18 and 25 years old when he died, with severe injuries to his skull, arms and legs. The wounds indicated bites from a large carnivore, which is why Karastoyanova's team compared them with the teeth marks of various carnivores that may have lived in the region at the time. The clearest match was with the teeth of an adult lion, whose upper row of teeth matched the bite pattern almost perfectly.
The man was attacked by the big cat, struck down and then bitten several times before he miraculously escaped or was freed from the lion's clutches by his community. However, it paid a high price for its survival, as the scientists were able to see from the skeleton: There was a large hole in the skull right up to the brain, which is why severe neurological damage cannot be ruled out. And the wounds to the legs and arms probably severely restricted the man's ability to walk or grasp, which is likely to have severely hampered his everyday life.
However, he survived for some time, as his bones showed clear signs of a healing process that probably took several months. This was possible thanks to the care of his community, in which medical expertise was already present: other skeletons from the burial site indicate that people had undergone skull surgery before they died. There is also evidence of such operations from other regions of Europe, including a find from Spain, which dates to around 5300 years ago.
The question remains as to what a lion was doing in Europe at that time. In fact, the distribution area of the big cats at that time extended as far as the Balkans. Lions probably only became extinct during the Roman Empire, when they were captured for gladiator fights, among other things. In Greece, they may have survived until the 1st century AD.
Spectrum of science
We are partners of Spektrum der Wissenschaft and want to make well-founded information more accessible to you. Follow Spektrum der Wissenschaft if you like the articles.
Original article on Spektrum.de
Header image: Shutterstock / Callum Evans Photography
Spektrum der Wissenschaft
Wissenschaft aus erster Hand
dirdjaja@spektrum.deExperts from science and research report on the latest findings in their fields – competent, authentic and comprehensible.
News + Trends
From the latest iPhone to the return of 80s fashion. The editorial team will help you make sense of it all.
Show all
