Crania with mutilated facial skeletons

A new ritual treatment in an early Pre‐Pottery Neolithic B cranial cache at Tell Qarassa North (South Syria)

Bibliographic Data

ID8316588
AuthorsJ Santana (0000-0002-9615-8560, Universidad de Las Palmas de Gran Canaria), Javier Velasco (0000-0003-3864-9123, Universidad de Las Palmas de Gran Canaria), Juan José Ibáñez (0000-0002-6394-9737, Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas, corresponding author), Frank Braemer (Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique)
Year2012
Volume149
Issue2
Pages205-216
Publication date2012-10-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueAmerican Journal of Physical Anthropology (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0002-9483 • E-ISSN: 1096-8644
PublisherWiley (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1002/ajpa.22111
PMID22782494
OpenAlexW1981624850
LanguageEN
Citations received26
References cited44

The removal of crania from burials, their ritual use and their disposal, generally in cranial caches, are the most particular characteristics of the funerary ritual in the transition to the Neolithic in the Near East. Despite the importance of this ritual, detailed studies of cranial caches are rare. This funerary ritual has traditionally been interpreted as a form of ancestor‐veneration. However, this study of the cranial caches found at the site of Tell Qarassa North, South Syria, dated in the second half of the ninth millennium BC, questions this interpretation. The 12 crania, found in two groups arranged in two circles on the floor of a room, belonged to male individuals, apart from one child and one preadolescent. In 10 of the 11 cases, the facial skeletons were deliberately mutilated. In the context of the Pre‐Pottery Neolithic B, when the symbolism of the human face played a vital role in ritual practice, this mutilation of the facial skeleton could be interpreted as an act of hostility. In the absence of indicators of social stratification or signs of violence that might indicate more coercive forms of society, the veneration of ancestors has been explained as a mechanism for social cohesion, which would have been necessary in a context of rapid growth in the population of settlements. However, data on the negative nature of some funerary rites, of punishment or indifference rather than veneration, should make us question an over‐idealized view of the first Neolithic societies. Am J Phys Anthropol 149:205–216, 2012. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc

Ancient history · Archaeology · Context (archaeology) · Crania · Geography · Population · Pottery · Sociology · Veneration · Archaeology and ancient environmental studies · Demography · Forensic Anthropology and Bioarchaeology Studies · History · Paleopathology and ancient diseases

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