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An art illustration of two people wrapping the baby’s head. | Credit: Image of Tom Björklund, reproduced with permission from Irene, even published in Scientific Reports (2025), under the CC BY-NC-ND license.
A prehistoric skull, discovered half a century ago in an Italian cave, is the oldest example of an artificial cranial modification ever discovered in Europe, reveals new studies. The unusual long skull, which is about 12,500 years old, confirms that this practice dates from at least StoneS
“Body Modification-Inclusively the form of a cranial-baby one of the many strategies used by past societies to build and transmit identity, status and belonging”, co-author of the study Irene evenBioarcheologist at the University of Florence, Live Science told an email.
In the new study published on July 30 in the magazine Scientific reportsResearchers analyzed a skull from ARENE CANDIDE caveLate Upper Paleolithic on the northwest coast of Italy. Between about 12,900 and 11 600 years of generations of hunters hunters used the cave to bury their deadS In the 1940s, archaeologists discovered dozens of human skeletons in place and most were rearranged after death in an ancient ritual. One particular skull of an adult man called AC12 was found in a niche on top of another funeral.
In the 1980s, researchers suggested that the long narrow skull of AC12 can be the result of a disease or accident that changes the growth of the skull when the man was a child.
But even his colleagues were intrigued by another potential explanation: an artificial cranial modification. For the new study, they practically reconstructed the skull and statistically demonstrated that the best explanation for the “strangely shaped head” of AC12 was a modification of the body in childhood, they wrote in the study.
The practice of artificial cranial modification involves applying pressure to the baby’s head during growth and development. When done consistently for months or years, it leads to a constant conversion of the human skull. It’s vaguely Whether practice would affect human brain function.
AC12 skull was reconstructed and Glued together in the 70sSo the researchers had to separate it to correctly measure the skull fragments. They chose to do this indestructible by executing Ct scan on the skull and practically dividing the bones. The researchers are then digitally reconstructed by AC12 in four ways and used a technique called geometric morphometry, which quantifies the biological form of bone to compare virtual reconstructions with skulls from around the world.
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All the results of this analysis have revealed that the AC12 is similar to other artificially modified skulls rather than normal skulls or those affected by disease or trauma. Moreover, the shape of the AC12 skull is probably made by wrapping strips of fabric tightly around the circumference of his head, the study authors said.
“This would be the most common known case of artificial cranial modification in Europe,” the study researchers wrote as the bones were dated before 12,190 and 12 620 years.
Reflections on the practice of artificial cranial modification are still unknown and its importance probably varies among the cultures that implemented it.
“The modification of the cultural body was probably an ancient and widespread practice,” said even “it may have been one of several practices used to express identity and transmit social norms.” The Arene Candide also has evidence from people’s teeth that they decorate their faces with cheeks. But since the skeletons are very fragmentary, he even said, it is not clear how common the artificial cranial modification is.
An idea that researchers are investigating is whether AC12 is somehow different from others buried in the cemetery of the Stone Age. ARENE CANDIDE ‘Analysis DNA continued, said even shed light on possible long -distance migration or Genetic Belonging to other groups.
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But artificial cranial modification is practiced around the world. Thehe The oldest example of Asia dates from about 11,200 years ago while The oldest example in Australia is from 13,500 years ago. Although the practice can be most famous from Central and South America, where it has been performed for almost 10,000 years, it “has its roots in the Paleolithic,” the researchers wrote.
“This practice may occur independently in different regions,” he said even as a practice, “rooted in shared human trends to use the body as an environment of expression.” But given the number of modified skulls throughout Eurasia, “the available evidence does not allow us to finally determine whether the cranial modification was self -fictional or culturally transmitted between the groups,” he even said.