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Skull

A Paracas elongated skull and an artist’s impression based on a digital reconstruction.

New DNA Testing on 2,000-Year-Old Elongated Paracas Skulls Changes Known History

The elongated skulls of Paracas in Peru caused a stir in 2014 when a geneticist that carried out preliminary DNA testing reported that they have mitochondrial DNA “with mutations unknown in any human...
The elongated skull with stone encrusted teeth found in Teotihuacan, Mexico.

1,600-Year-Old Elongated Skull with Stone-Encrusted Teeth Found in Mexico Ruins

Archaeologists in Mexico have unearthed a remarkable burial in the ancient ruins of Teotihuacan containing a 1,600-year-old skeleton of an upper-class woman with an elongated skull, stone encrusted...
Representational image showing trepanation. A trepanated skull of a girl from the Neolithic period (3500 BC); the patient survived. Natural History Museum, Lausanne, Switzerland.

7,000-Year-Old Head Surgery: One of the Oldest Trepanned Skulls Discovered in Sudan

A remarkable discovery was made during excavations in a Neolithic settlement in Omdurman in Sudan – an ancient skeleton with signs of trepanation (drilling a hole in the skull), dating back around 7,...
issected foetal skull dating from the 1800s, originally held in the University of Cambridge Anatomy Museum.

Infant Bodies Were Prized by 19th Century Anatomists, Study Suggests

A study of the University of Cambridge anatomy collection dating from the 1700s and 1800s shows how the bodies of stillborn foetuses and babies were a “prized source of knowledge” and were dissected...
Mini Golden Coffin Found in Crypt May Hold Skull Bone of Buddha

Mini Golden Coffin Found in Crypt May Hold Skull Bone of Buddha

When archaeologists were excavating the Grand Bao’en Temple of Nanjing, China in 2008 they came across a significant find – a relic linked to Buddha, Siddhartha Gautama. The artifact was a skull bone...
Ancient Deep Skull Still Holds Big Surprises 60 Years After it was Unearthed

Ancient Deep Skull Still Holds Big Surprises 60 Years After it was Unearthed

Thousands of years ago, the ancestors of modern humans left Africa to embark on a journey that would eventually take them across the globe. Yet we still know precious little about the momentous...
Bizarre Alien-Like Skull Unearthed in Korea was Naturally Formed

Bizarre Alien-Like Skull Unearthed in Korea was Naturally Formed

Archaeologists have unearthed an elongated skull in a grave belonging to the ancient Silla culture of Korea, which experts say was NOT deliberately flattened through the practice of cranial...
Koalas: Dreamtime Legends, Ancient Symbols, and their Dangerous Prehistoric Ancestors

Koalas: Dreamtime Legends, Ancient Symbols, and their Dangerous Prehistoric Ancestors

The koala is a major draw for Australian zoos and wildlife parks. They are featured heavily in Australia-related advertisements, cartoons, and soft toys. If one were to name the animal most closely...
Talgua Cave: The Cave of the Glowing Skulls

Talgua Cave: The Cave of the Glowing Skulls

Talgua Cave, known also as the ‘Cave of the Glowing Skulls’, is a cave located in the Olancho Valley, which is situated in Catacamas, a municipality in northeastern Honduras. The cave’s name may be...
Ritually Motivated Traditions May Be Behind Holes Drilled into Skulls in Prehistoric Russia

Ritually Motivated Traditions May Be Behind Holes Drilled into Skulls in Prehistoric Russia

Researchers believe holes cut in people’s skulls more than 4,000 years ago in Russia involved some kind of rite rather than medical surgery. Amazingly, some of the people, who were apparently very...
Homo erectus Skull Discovered in Central Java Provides More Evidence for Ancient Hominids in the Area

Homo erectus Skull Discovered in Central Java Provides More Evidence for Ancient Hominids in the Area

The skull of a Homo erectus has been found in the area near the Bojong River in Manyarejo village, Sragen, Central Java, Indonesia. It is the first discovery of a human fossil in this area in 80...
New Research Asserts that the Hobbits of Indonesia Vanished Earlier than Previously Believed

New Research Asserts that the Hobbits of Indonesia Vanished Earlier than Previously Believed

The pint-sized Homo floresiensis, nicknamed Hobbits, may have met their demise much earlier than previously believed. Recent research suggests that they lived around 50,000 years ago and not between...
Shakespeare's memorial bust in the Holy Trinity church

Is the Skull of Shakespeare Missing from His Grave?

Even 400 years after his death, the Bard continues to be the source of amazing anecdotes. One of the tales that is often dismissed as fiction is that Shakespeare’s skull was stolen from his grave...
Skull shown in-situ prior to excavation

Hereditary or Head-Binding? Archaeologist Seeks Answers on the Strange Achavanich Beaker Burial

In 1987, the remains of an 18-22-year-old woman, now dubbed Ava, were discovered at Achavanich in Caithness in the north of Scotland. The site was excavated by the Highland Regional Council...
Close-up of human skulls that are part of the Chapel of Bones of the Church of San Francisco in Évora, Portugal.

The Story Behind a Frightening Chapel of Bones in Portugal

There is a Church of San Francisco found in the Portuguese city of Évora, 140 km (87 miles) from Lisbon. Inside this church, next to the cloister of the former Franciscan monastery, in the place...
The archaeological team, including a likely descendant of the prehistoric California people being studied, re-created one of the burials in an image.

Ancient California burials show a macabre way to honor the dead

Different societies approach death in a great variety of ways. One community in California about 3,000 to 4,000 years ago honored their dead by burying the deceased headless in some cases or with...
Photographs of skull 26 at the burial site, Lapa do Santo, Brazil.

Oldest Beheading Case in the World Discovered in Brazil

Until recently, it was thought that human decapitation was a practice only present from about 3,000 years ago. Evidence had almost always been found in the Andean region, where beheading was in...
The discoveries have led to palpable excitement among scientists in Siberia.

Discovery of ancient bones in Altai Mountains cave may be missing link in understanding human origins

Fragments of an early human skull and rib were found in Pleistocene era layers in Strashnaya Cave, it was announced by Professor Andrey Krivoshapkin, head of Archeology and Ethnography at Novosibirsk...
Eight Impressive but Terrifying Cases of Ancient Surgery

Eight Impressive but Terrifying Cases of Ancient Surgery

It is hard to fathom the way in which invasive surgery was carried out prior to the development of modern anaesthesia, but ancient people around the world have been cutting and drilling into the...
Cannibal feast on the Island of Tanna, New Hebrides by Charles E. Gordon Frazer (1863-1899).

Skull Cups and Chewed Bones: Cannibalism was Ritual Behavior during Stone Age say Researchers

When scientists examined the cracked skulls and gnawed bones found in a cave in England, they recognized the grisly signs of cannibalism. Archaeological findings now indicate that the dwellers of...
Prehistoric Skull and Jaw Found in Laos

Prehistoric Skull and Jaw Found in Laos Rewrite Timelines and Reveal Diversity of Early Humans

Ancient human fossils found in a cave in northern Laos are revealing to scientists that early modern humans were quite physically diverse, and they reveal an earlier migration timeline in Southeast...
Altamura Man, surrounded by limestone deposits in the Grotta di Lamalunga

Calcified remains of Altamura Man yield oldest ever Neanderthal DNA sample

Just over two decades ago in the Grotta di Lamalunga, near the city of Altamura in Italy, a team of scientists discovered the remains of a prehistoric hominid branded ‘Altamura Man’. For years, the...
Britain's oldest brain

Decapitated Skull Holds Remarkable Find - Oldest Preserved Brain in Britain

Archaeologists stumbled upon a surprising find in 2009 when they uncovered a preserved brain in a skull, buried in an Iron Age pit in Yorkshire, England. Known as the Heslington Brain, the find has...
A 3D scan of a 22,000-year-old skull fragment from a modern human found in Kenya.

Unusual 20,000-year-old human skull shows diversity of prehistoric humanity

A unique Stone Age skull found in Kenya is reshaping what scientists know about the diversity of early humanity. The 20,000-year-old partial skull was found at Lukenya Hill in the 1970s and stored in...

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