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Earliest Directly-Dated Human Skull-Cups

BACKGROUND: The use of human braincases as drinking cups and containers has extensive historic and ethnographic documentation, but archaeological examples are extremely rare. In the Upper Palaeolithic of western Europe, cut-marked and broken human bones are widespread in the Magdalenian (∼15 to 12,0...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Bello, Silvia M., Parfitt, Simon A., Stringer, Chris B.
Formato: Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Public Library of Science 2011
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3040189/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21359211
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0017026
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author Bello, Silvia M.
Parfitt, Simon A.
Stringer, Chris B.
author_facet Bello, Silvia M.
Parfitt, Simon A.
Stringer, Chris B.
author_sort Bello, Silvia M.
collection PubMed
description BACKGROUND: The use of human braincases as drinking cups and containers has extensive historic and ethnographic documentation, but archaeological examples are extremely rare. In the Upper Palaeolithic of western Europe, cut-marked and broken human bones are widespread in the Magdalenian (∼15 to 12,000 years BP) and skull-cup preparation is an element of this tradition. PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: Here we describe the post-mortem processing of human heads at the Upper Palaeolithic site of Gough's Cave (Somerset, England) and identify a range of modifications associated with the production of skull-cups. New analyses of human remains from Gough's Cave demonstrate the skilled post-mortem manipulation of human bodies. Results of the research suggest the processing of cadavers for the consumption of body tissues (bone marrow), accompanied by meticulous shaping of cranial vaults. The distribution of cut-marks and percussion features indicates that the skulls were scrupulously 'cleaned' of any soft tissues, and subsequently modified by controlled removal of the facial region and breakage of the cranial base along a sub-horizontal plane. The vaults were also ‘retouched’, possibly to make the broken edges more regular. This manipulation suggests the shaping of skulls to produce skull-cups. CONCLUSIONS: Three skull-cups have been identified amongst the human bones from Gough's Cave. New ultrafiltered radiocarbon determinations provide direct dates of about 14,700 cal BP, making these the oldest directly dated skull-cups and the only examples known from the British Isles.
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spelling pubmed-30401892011-02-25 Earliest Directly-Dated Human Skull-Cups Bello, Silvia M. Parfitt, Simon A. Stringer, Chris B. PLoS One Research Article BACKGROUND: The use of human braincases as drinking cups and containers has extensive historic and ethnographic documentation, but archaeological examples are extremely rare. In the Upper Palaeolithic of western Europe, cut-marked and broken human bones are widespread in the Magdalenian (∼15 to 12,000 years BP) and skull-cup preparation is an element of this tradition. PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: Here we describe the post-mortem processing of human heads at the Upper Palaeolithic site of Gough's Cave (Somerset, England) and identify a range of modifications associated with the production of skull-cups. New analyses of human remains from Gough's Cave demonstrate the skilled post-mortem manipulation of human bodies. Results of the research suggest the processing of cadavers for the consumption of body tissues (bone marrow), accompanied by meticulous shaping of cranial vaults. The distribution of cut-marks and percussion features indicates that the skulls were scrupulously 'cleaned' of any soft tissues, and subsequently modified by controlled removal of the facial region and breakage of the cranial base along a sub-horizontal plane. The vaults were also ‘retouched’, possibly to make the broken edges more regular. This manipulation suggests the shaping of skulls to produce skull-cups. CONCLUSIONS: Three skull-cups have been identified amongst the human bones from Gough's Cave. New ultrafiltered radiocarbon determinations provide direct dates of about 14,700 cal BP, making these the oldest directly dated skull-cups and the only examples known from the British Isles. Public Library of Science 2011-02-16 /pmc/articles/PMC3040189/ /pubmed/21359211 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0017026 Text en Bello et al. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are properly credited.
spellingShingle Research Article
Bello, Silvia M.
Parfitt, Simon A.
Stringer, Chris B.
Earliest Directly-Dated Human Skull-Cups
title Earliest Directly-Dated Human Skull-Cups
title_full Earliest Directly-Dated Human Skull-Cups
title_fullStr Earliest Directly-Dated Human Skull-Cups
title_full_unstemmed Earliest Directly-Dated Human Skull-Cups
title_short Earliest Directly-Dated Human Skull-Cups
title_sort earliest directly-dated human skull-cups
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3040189/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21359211
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0017026
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