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| Plastered human skull |
| Human skull, ritually preserved, and plaster filled, painted, and with shell inlaid eyes. |
| Centimetres: 13.3 (height), 18.5 (length), 13.5 (width) |
| 8500-7000 BC |
| Neolithic; Pre-Pottery Neolithic B phase; 9th to 8th millennium BC |
| Area of Origin: Jericho; Levant; Palestine |
| Area of Use: Jericho; West Bank Territory; Palestine |
| 955.165.1 | | ROM2004_1044_7 | | |
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Description: The belief in an afterlife led to a variety of practices that lessened the finality of death. At the ancient site of Jericho, around 7500 BC, the heads of adult males were removed from desiccated skeletons. The skull cavities were filled with plaster, and the head was painted, and placed beneath the floor. Some scholars have termed this "ancestor worship." A better, more informal term is "ancestor reverence".
This severed human skull is ritually preserved¯plaster filled, painted, and the eyes inlaid with shells. |
Other Media:
VIDEO: Jericho Skull (time: 3.19; 13.5MB); Host: Julian Siggers, Curator: Dan Rahimi
Selected segment from the ROM/Discovery Channel series Hidden Treasures as seen on Discovery Channel. |
Publications: 1. Kenyon, Kathleen. 1981. Excavations at Jericho, Vol. 3. London: British School of Archaeology in Jerusalem.
2. Bonogofsky, Michelle. 2001. A New Look at 'Ancestor Cult' in the Levant. Proceedings of the Near & Middle Eastern Civilizations Graduate Students’ Annual Symposium 1998-2000. Toronto. |
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