Pre-Pottery Neolithic communities in the Levant, roughly 10,000–7,000 BCE, practised varied mortuary rituals. Some human skulls were separated from bodies, plastered or modeled—especially around the eyes and mouth—and then displayed, buried or placed in caches. The video argues that these practices, together with distinctions between fatal head wounds and survivable wounds to the heart, reveal a concept in which identity and consciousness resided in the head. Archaeology documents the skull treatment, but not that psychological conclusion, and evidence for comparable practices across Anatolia remains more limited.
Video argues for head-centred consciousness in Neolithic skull treatment
TürkiyeGeneral
Site mentioned
Key facts
- Pre-Pottery Neolithic mortuary practices are documented in the Levant around 10,000–7,000 BCE, but they are not the earliest evidence of intentional mortuary practices.
- Levantine sites document skulls separated from bodies, plastered or modeled with emphasized eyes and mouths, and then displayed, buried or cached; comparable evidence across Anatolia is less extensive.
- The video argues that distinctions between fatal head wounds and survivable heart wounds led people to associate identity and consciousness with the head.
- Archaeology documents the mortuary practices but does not establish the proposed head-centred concept of consciousness.
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 ...
Interpreting a ritual funerary area at the Early Neolithic site ...sciencedirect.com
by J Santana · 2015 · Cited by 58 — We analyze the funerary area from the Early Pre-Pottery Neolithic B site of Tell Qarassa North. · The funerary ritual is described. · We document the use of an ...
(PDF) Funerals and feasts during the Pre-Pottery Neolithic ...researchgate.net
We compared burial practices in Atlit-Yam to other Pre-Pottery Neolithic sites in the Southern Levant. skull treatment and presence of burial ...
Studies on Burial Practices in the Pre-Pottery Neolithic ...academia.edu
This collection of studies examines burial practices during the Pre-Pottery Neolithic period in the Levant, focusing on how the living interacted with the ...
Was this story useful?
Keep exploring
Every site on this page sits on the globe, and the people who research them are on the Discord.
3D Globe · Sites by country · Story Archive · Research Library · Weekly Journal · Search
AI-generated text · images from the original sources · always verify with the sources.