Plastered Syrian Skulls From The Dawn Of Civilisation 9,500 YO)

Minerva Magazine ^ | 12-29-2006 | Dr Mark Merrony

[blam]

Plastered Syrian Skulls from the Dawn of Civilisation

In the Neolithic period the Levantine Fertile Crescent ushered in one of the most profound cultural revolutions in the history of the Mediterranean basin. This environmentally blessed cradle of civilisation played host to modern humans as they made the crucial transition from hunter-gatherers to sedentary farmers to emerge as proto-urban societies. A conspicuous enigma of the world’s first ‘city dwellers’ was the most extraordinary ritual practice of plastering human skulls, which is attested at several major Neolithic sites, such as Jericho in the Palestinian Territories, Çatalhöyük in Turkey, and ‘Ain Ghazal in Jordan. To this list may now be added five skulls recently excavated by Danielle Stordeur of the CNRS at Tell Aswad in northern Syria.

Above: Three plastered skulls of 9500 BC surrounding a child burial excavated at Tell Aswad in northern Syria. Photos: Danielle Stordeur, CNRS."

The Syrian skulls are remarkable for their exceptional preservation, and display a bizarre, almost ‘alien’ primeval quality. They are also the oldest examples discovered. Having been radiocarbon dated to 9500 BC, they are over 2000 years older than the plastered skulls found elsewhere in the Levant, assigned to the Pre-Pottery Neolithic period. The skulls were discovered in a pit and were clustered around an infant inhumation. They are plastered smooth with clay painted red, the eyes are depicted closed and underlined with black bitumen, while the mouth appears as a thin slit. The sex of the individuals concerned is yet to be established, but this discovery may perhaps mirror other examples previously unearthed at Tell Aswad and elsewhere, in which the skulls had been removed from the skeletons of both adults and children.

Not surprisingly, the apparently widespread practice of removing, plastering, and painting skulls in the region has prompted a great deal of debate about the significance of this ritual. Professor Ian Hodder, the director of excavations at Çatalhöyük, has suggested to Minerva that ‘The meanings of these plastered skulls vary in different parts of the Middle East in the Neolithic. This new group from Syria is typical of those from the Levant and adjacent areas as the skulls are in groups. They represent collective and generic ancestors. But the example from Çatalhöyük is single and suggests a memory of an individual person. In all cases, the aim may be to “reflesh” the dead as part of rites of renewal’.

Danielle Stordeur relates her finds to a system of clans, social organisation, lineages, and group leaders, and has suggested that there was a clear choice in the small number of individuals selected for this special treatment, and their placement to mark cemeteries, and in the respect given to the skulls by their careful burial. She also thinks it likely that before they were placed into the pits they were exposed for a time before burial as in New Guinea, where this practice is known from ethnography. ‘The treatment of the face and head - the most “human” part of an individual - shows that people of this period had a conscience which specifically related to this part of the human body’.

Dr Mark Merrony

[aruanan]

Well, as true as this may be about the creosote bush ring, the idea that there is an individual tree still living that antedates virtually all recorded history is really cool.

[blam]

"Well, as true as this may be about the creosote bush ring, the idea that there is an individual tree still living that antedates virtually all recorded history is really cool."

I agree. I have some 7,000 year old wood that came from a submerged forest in Santa Rosa Sound in Florida.

[chit*chat]

I'm starting to think more and more that MAYBE we had more of an advanced civilization at some time in the past. . .

I agree with you on this. Looking at the creations such as the pyramids as just one example, it seems as if they were very advanced and somehow knowledge was lost over the years. The only thing that stumps me is why they created what seems like 'primative' structures (as compared to our dwellings). But perhaps they lived more in tune with the earth around them..

At any rate, they were more than stupid, lumbering ape types eaking out an existence.

[SunkenCiv]

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