Just give me the title of the human osteology handbook which you acquired from the local police CSI lab and I'll compare it to texts written by other medical authorities. I'd like to see for myself if it asserts that "technically" the cranium consists of "about" 22 bones. Maybe you done been steered wrong.
"Human Osteology, A Laboratory and Field Guide" by ____Bass
I don't have it on me here, but if you'll wait for a bit I'll go dig it out after supper and give you everything down to its ISBN, and cite the chapter and page.
I do recall that the book is divided into "cranial anatomy" and "post-cranial anatomy" - the latter starts at the Atlas, the former includes all bones north of the Atlas.
Coyoteman notifies me that upthread he posted a list of human cranial bones from that very book, fifth edition.