Pre-Pottery Neolithic people (10,000-7,000 BC) removed skulls, plastered them, and displayed them in homes. Archaeological evidence shows they detached human skulls from bodies, plastered and modeled facial features, then either displayed them or buried them in caches. The plastered skulls often featured emphasized eyes and mouths, suggesting symbolic importance of facial features. However, the claim that these practices demonstrate ancient people understood consciousness lived in the head based on observed wound survivability is an interpretive inference not supported by archaeological evidence. The extent of these practices in Anatolia also remains less documented than in the Levant.
Pre-Pottery Neolithic skull removal: consciousness in head concept
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Key facts
- Oldest intentional mortuary practices date to pre-pottery Neolithic, 10,000-7,000 BC
- Practices involved decapitation and skull removal across Levant and Anatolia
- Human skulls were detached, plastered over, and displayed in homes or buried separately
- Ancient people correlated head wounds with instant death vs. heart wounds survivable
- They specifically associated eyes and mouth with identity and consciousness
- This represents understanding that consciousness resided in the head, not the heart
Sources
[PDF] Off with Their Heads! An Analysis of the Levantine Plastered Skulls ...arminda.whitman.edu
Skull removal then became progressively more specialized in the Pre-. Pottery Neolithic A (PPNA, from 10,000 cal BC to 9,000 cal BC), and was practiced until ...
The Plastered Skulls from the Pre-Pottery Neolithic B Site of Yiftahel ...pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
Three plastered skulls, dating to the Pre-Pottery Neolithic B, were found at the site of Yiftahel, in the Lower Galilee (Israel).
Jericho: History, Archaeology, People, Plastered Skullsafricame.factsanddetails.com
Skulls plastering is one of the earliest burial practices in the southern Levant. During the Neolithic period, the deceased were often buried under the floors ...
The Jericho Skull - Smarthistorysmarthistory.org
Initially each plastered skull would have been a known individual, but as time passed they likely became ancestor figures who may have been worshipped. It's ...
JERICHO SKULL - Ashmolean Museumashmolean.org
The plastered skull dates to around 7000 BC, a time when clay was helping to transform settled communities, including the creation of figurines of animals and ...
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