Archaeologists may have finally discovered how a 5,300-year-old skull ended up on the ledge of a deep vertical axis of caves in northern Italy.
The skull, without a jaw, was discovered in 2015 during exploratory work in a natural gypsum cave in northern Italy. It was found near the top of a vertical axis, approximately 12 meters below a meandering cave complex and 26 meters below ground level.
Finding a skull in such a strange and isolated place was a surprise, to say the least. No other human remains were found in the immediate vicinity, nor any archaeological evidence. The location of the inverted skull — a natural cavity within the axis — can only be accessed with special climbing equipment and not in a place where ancient peoples could have easily reached it.
In 2017, archaeologists returned to the cave, known as Marcel Loubens, to document and recover the skull. New research published today in PLOS One provides a detailed analysis of the fossil, along with a possible explanation of how it ended up in such an unlikely place. The paper was directed by archaeologist Maria Giovanna Belcastro of the University of Bologna in Italy.
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As the authors speculate, the skull was probably transported to the platform by a number of natural geological processes, including the opening of sinkholes, mudflows, and running water. It appears that the 5,300-year-old fossil traveled through this cave system by itself.
For the study, the researchers focused on “investigating the circumstances surrounding the death of this individual, as the skull shows signs of some injuries that appear to be the result of [post-death] manipulation that will likely be performed to remove soft tissues. ”
In fact, the skull, known as Marcel Loubens skull, or MLC in short, has some scratches and cut marks that are consistent with the removal of the flesh, which was probably done as part of a ritual of death, according to the authors. It seems strange, but the undressing of dead individuals was a relatively common prehistoric practice (even between Neanderthals), both in this part of the world and elsewhere.
As explained by anthropologist Alessia Zielo of the University of Padua in a 2018 paper, there were some good reasons for the practice:
In the cultures of the past, the head was meant to be the seat of the soul, which contained the life force and possessed extraordinary qualities. It was also the profound symbol of a power closely tied to the concepts of life, death and fertility. In addition, after the death, the manipulation of the skulls showed that the physical remains of the deceased continued to play an important role in the community life in which [they] belonged.
However, finding the skull in a cave is not a surprise. The use of these Italian caves as “natural cavities”, in the words of researchers, was common during the first half of the 3rd millennium BC, as evidenced by previous archaeological discoveries. The dead individuals were brought inside these caves and put to rest, which is probably the situation here. In fact, radiocarbon dating of the skull dated it between 3630 and 3380 BC, placing it within this time period, known as the Eneolithic period of Italy, also known as the Copper Age.
By context, Ötzi the Iceman, that famous natural mummy found embedded in the ice, lived sometime between 3400 and 3100 BC. Ötzi died in the Ötztal Alps, on the border between Austria and Italy, and about 345 km north of the Marcel Loubens cave.
The skull, with several teeth still attached, was found in very good shape, allowing a detailed analysis. Belcastro and colleagues used microscopes and a CT scanner to study the fossil, as well as analyzing a detailed 3D replica.
Detailed measurements of the skull were cross-referenced with a forensic database, suggesting it belonged to a woman who died between the ages of 24 and 35. The injuries probably happened after death, as no signs of healing were detected. A little ocher was also detected, which could have something to do with the funeral ritual.
Other evidence suggests that this woman was not particularly healthy. She suffered from chronic anemia, such as an iron or vitamin B deficiency. She probably endured prolonged metabolic stress when she was a child and appears to have had an endocrine disorder, as revealed by a dental analysis. In fact, the shift to Neolithic lifestyles was not all a game and fun; new (agriculture-based) diets, new living conditions, and denser living conditions resulted in decreased health and increased exposure to unhygienic, pathogenic, and parasitic conditions, according to the document.
Skull injuries do not appear to have been caused by animal behaviors, such as biting, biting, or scratching. In addition, the detection of “irregularly thick calcite crusts” in the MLC fossil suggests that the skull began to move shortly after the woman rested and by natural processes.
By conducting a geological review of the cave system and studying the skull, scientists have devised a plausible explanation for the strange location of the skull.
Here is the explanation: Shortly after resting the woman, her skull let go and moved away. Water and mud began to run through the cave, transporting the skull further down the slope of a sinkhole and into a deeper cave. The continued activity of dolina sculpted the cave in its present form, landing the skull in its strange resting place.
It should be noted that Marcel Loubens Cave is located within a depression of the region known locally as “Dolina dell’Inferno”, which literally translates as “Hellh Sinkhole”. This mourning activity and the ongoing geological processes transporting the skull to such a strange point seems entirely reasonable.
We will probably never know the exact story of how this skull ended up within that deep axis of the cave, but this study offers some remarkable findings based on a single skull found completely out of an archaeological context. Archaeologists, as this article shows, are very adept at working with very little. Somehow, it’s kind of what they do.