quote: For years, the battered 9,500-year-old Jericho Skull has been one of the British Museum's most chilling exhibits -- as well as its oldest portrait. Decorated with plaster in a Neolithic ritual, it was of seven discovered by eminent British archaeologist Kathleen Kenyon more than 60 years ago in Jericho, West Bank, one of the world's oldest cities.
Experts also noted how the skull lacked a proper jaw, while the man himself had a decayed tooth and broken nose (that healed before his death).
But arguably the most striking detail of the Jericho Skull pertained to how the man probably underwent the practice of head-binding.
Before the head was buried, the skull was defleshed and the mandible was removed, then facial features were reconstructed with plaster. So that the plaster crania retained the identity of the family member, individual facial characteristics were painted on with red and black paint. In many cases the eye orbits were inlaid with shells and the crania were decorated with hair and mustaches. A round piece of bone was cut out of the back of the skull and soil was placed inside to support the weight of the plaster on the surface of the bones.
Headless skeletons in burials of this period have been found, and it is probable that the removal of the skulls for use in this way had some religious purpose, perhaps connected with an ancestor cult.
Sagittal micro-CT image showing variation in the thickness of the clay packed skull and a broken tooth with abscess in the upper jaw
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