Early Human Decapitation, 11,700–10, 700 cal BP, within the Pre-Pottery Neolithic Village of Tell Qaramel, North Syria (original) (raw)
Related papers
Original Synthetic Report: Study of Neolithic human graves from Tell Qaramel in North Syria
International Journal of Modern Anthropology, 2010
Youssef Kanjou was born the 1 / 11 / 1971 in Aleppo city, Syria He received his doctorate in Anthropology from the National University Autonomy of Mexico. He is director of the excavation department of the Aleppo museum, Ministry of culture, Syria. He participates in an excavation mission relating to Neolithic and Palaeolithic periods in northern Syria.
American Journal of Physical Anthropology, 2012
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 delibin Wiley Online Library (wileyonlinelibrary.com).
Study of Neolithic human graves from
Youssef Kanjou was born the 1 / 11 / 1971 in Aleppo city, Syria He received his doctorate in Anthropology from the National University Autonomy of Mexico. He is director of the excavation department of the Aleppo museum, Ministry of culture, Syria. He participates in an excavation mission relating to Neolithic and Palaeolithic periods in northern Syria.
A Study of Skull Symbolism in Near Eastern Neolithic Societies
2014
Skull removal practices flourished during the PPNA and PPNB periods and dominated the funeral rituals in society. The treatment of the skull reflected the importance of the skull in Neolithic societies. The skull had a relationship with the life and identity of the dead, and created linkage between the living and dead. In the following Pottery Neolithic Period, this custom obviously decreased. The cemetery of Tell el Kerkh in northwestern Syria presented six clear specimens of skull removal in the primary burials. These specimens may help to understand the reason for continuity of skull removal in this period. Therefore, I will highlight both the rapid decrease of skull removal practices in general and its survival at a few sites in the Pottery Neolithic period. I believe that this kind of study furthers understanding of skull symbolism in Near Eastern Neolithic societies.
The retrieval and re-deposition of elements of the human skeleton, especially the skull (i.e., cranium and man-dible), is a common feature of Neolithic Near Eastern funerary practices. A complicated sequence of subfloor inhumations involving both primary and secondary burial treatments at Çatalhöyük demonstrates the range of funerary practices encountered at the site and elsewhere in the Neolithic Near East. This particular sequence of burials culminated in a stratigraphically verified case of post-inhumation skull removal from a primary intra-mural inhumation. However, the retrieval of crania and skulls from primary burials cannot account for the total number of re-deposited crania and skulls found in a variety of depositional contexts at the site. Based on increasing evidence for an extended interval between death and burial at Çatalhöyük, the removal and circulation of skulls from unburied bodies as part of a multi-stage funerary rite is proposed as another method for obtaining them, operating in parallel with their retrieval from primary intramural burials. These divergent practices, and the range of contexts from which secondarily deposited skeletal elements are recovered, reflect multiple funerary treatments and intentions likely tied to social distinctions that remain poorly understood. In order to begin to fully understand the social and cosmological meaning(s) of the Neolithic "skull cult, " however, we must first distinguish between what are essentially equifinal processes in the archaeological record. This work will involve careful attention to the spatiotemporal contexts in which isolated skeletal elements are found, in addition to meticulous osteological and taphonomic analyses of the bones themselves.
Paleorient, 1992
We report material from four Proto-Neolithic and Neolithic sites, Shanidar Cave, Iraq, dated ca 9000 to 8500 ВС, Ganj Dareh Tepe, Iran, ca 7500 to 6500 ВС, Tepe Ghenil, Iran, late 8th to early 6th millennium ВС, and Bouqras, Syria, ca 6500 to 5500 ВС.