Archaeologists may have finally figured out how a 5,300-year-old skull landed on the edge of a vertical cave well deep in northern Italy.
The skull, without a jaw, was discovered in 2015 during exploratory work on a natural gypsum cave in northern Italy. It was found near the top of a vertical tree, about 12 meters below a complex of winding caves and 26 meters below ground level.
That a skull should be found in such a strange and isolated place was a complete surprise, to say the least. No other human remains were found in the immediate vicinity and no archaeological evidence was found. The location of the overturned skull – a natural cavity inside the well – can only be accessed with special climbing equipment, and not a place that ancient peoples could have easily reached.
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 got to such an unlikely place. The work was led by archaeologist Maria Giovanna Belcastro from the University of Bologna in Italy.
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According to the authors, the skull was probably transported to the shelf through a series of natural geological processes, including the opening of sinkholes, landslides and rushing water. It seems that the 5,300-year-old fossil traveled through this cave system on its own initiative.
For the study, the researchers focused on investigating the circumstances surrounding this individual’s death, as the skull shows signs of injuries that appear to be the results. [post-death] manipulation probably performed to remove soft tissue. ”
Indeed, the skull, known as the Marcel Loubens skull, or MLC for short, has a few scratches and cut marks that are consistent with the removal of the flesh, which was probably done as part of a death ritual, according to the authors. It seems strange, but the defilement of the deceased was a relatively common prehistoric practice (even between Neandertal), both in this part of the world and elsewhere.
As explained by the anthropologist Alessia Zielo from the University of Padua in 2018 paper, there were some very 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 force of life and possessed extraordinary qualities. It was also a profound symbol of a power closely linked to the concepts of life, death and fertility. Also, after his 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, that the skull was found in a cave is not a surprise. The use of these Italian caves as “natural cavities”, in the words of researchers, was common in the first half of the 3rd millennium BC, as evidenced by previous archaeological discoveries. The dead were brought to these caves and left to rest, which is probably the situation here. Indeed, the radiocarbon dating of the skull dated it between 3630 and 3380 BC, placing it in this time period, known as the Eneolithic period of Italy, also known as the Copper Age.
For context, Ötzi the Ice Man – that famous natural mummy found embedded in ice – lived at some point between 3400 and 3100 BC. Ötzi died in the Ötztal Alps, on the border between Austria and Italy, and about 345 km north of Marcel Loubens Cave.
The skull, with a few teeth still attached, was found in a remarkably good shape, allowing a detailed analysis. Belcastro and her colleagues used microscopes and a CT scanner to study the fossils, in addition to analyzing a detailed 3D replica.
Detailed measurements of the skull were crossed with a forensic database, suggesting that it belonged to a woman who died between the ages of 24 and 35. The injuries probably occurred after death because no signs of healing were detected. Something ocher was also detected, which could be related to the funeral ritual.
Other evidence suggests that this woman was not particularly healthy. He suffered from chronic anemia, such as an iron deficiency or vitamin B. He probably endured prolonged metabolic stress in childhood and appears to have had an endocrine disorder, according to a dental analysis. Indeed, the transition to Neolithic lifestyles was not just fun and games; new (agriculture-based) diets, new living conditions and denser living conditions have led to decreased health and increased exposure to unhygienic conditions, pathogens and parasites, according to the newspaper.
Injuries to the skull do not appear to have been caused by animal behavior, such as biting, redness or scratching. Moreover, the detection of “irregular calcite crusts” on the MLC fossil suggests that the skull began to move shortly after the woman was put to rest and by natural processes.
By conducting a geological analysis 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 the woman was stretched, her skull came off and rolled. Water and mud began to rush through the cave, transporting the skull down the slope of a sinkhole and into a deeper cave. The continuous activity of the pit sculpted the cave in its current form, landing the skull in its strange place of rest.
It should be noted that the Marcel Loubens Cave is located in a depression in the region known locally as “Dolina dell’Inferno”, which literally translates as “Dolina of Hell”. That pit activity and ongoing geological processes have transported the skull to such a strange place, it seems completely reasonable.
We will probably never know the exact story of how this skull got inside that deep cave tree, but this study offers some remarkable discoveries based on a single skull found completely outside an archaeological context. Archaeologists, as this paper shows, are very adept at working with very little. In a way, it’s kind of what I do.