logo
This Ancient Culture Drove Nails Into Skulls. We May Finally Know Why.

This Ancient Culture Drove Nails Into Skulls. We May Finally Know Why.

Yahoo02-03-2025

Our ancient ancestors have done some interesting things to human bones over the years, but one example from the Iron Age Iberian Peninsula is a real puzzle.
There, in multiple locations, archaeologists have turned up a number of human skulls, removed from their skeletons, and some with large iron spikes or nails driven right through the forehead, and protruding out through the occipital bone in the back of the head.
What was the reason for this practice? Many previous studies suggest that the primary motivation was the display of war trophies, in which the heads of one's enemies were nailed to a wall.
But there's another possibility: that the heads belonged to venerated community members, and the display was a way of honoring them after death.
Now, new isotope analysis of skulls found at the archaeological sites of Ullastret and Puig Castellar suggests that both interpretations might be true.
"Who were these individuals and for what were their heads used?" says archaeologist Rubén de la Fuente-Seoane of the Autonomous University of Barcelona, who led the research.
"Our premise in approaching the study was that if they were war trophies they would not come from the sites analysed, while if they were venerated individuals, these would most likely be local."
The research focused on the skulls of seven men, either with nails, or holes where nails had been driven, from both sites in the first millennium BCE – four from Puig Castellar and three from Ullastret.
The researchers performed strontium and oxygen isotope analysis on enamel from the teeth of these skulls, and the skulls of animals that had also been found in the regions from the same time periods.
Strontium and oxygen isotopes enter the body through food and drink, respectively, and replace some of the calcium in our teeth and bones. The interesting thing about this is that the ratios of these isotopes vary regionally, and your body retains them for your lifespan.
Archaeologists can look at specific isotopes and determine not just how a person ate, but where they lived, and how they moved about over the course of their lifetime.
The team's research confirms that the skulls were deliberately chosen; but the reason for those choices, and the reasons for the ritual display of the skulls, were probably multiple.
"At Puig Castellar the isotope values of three of the four individuals differ significantly from the local strontium reference, which suggests that they were probably not from the local community. In contrast, Ullastret revealed a mixture of local and non-local origins," Fuente-Seoane says.
"This result suggests that the practice of severed heads was applied in a different way at each site, which seems to rule out a homogeneous symbolic expression. But more research is needed to be sure."
The skulls at Puig Castellar were likely, the researchers found, war trophies, displayed on external city walls or the city gate to intimidate outsiders and possibly locals, too. Two of the skulls at Ullastret, on the other hand, were of local origin, and found in the street in the middle of the city, suggesting that their emplacement was for the benefit of the people who lived there.
Only one of the Ullastret skulls was placed on the city wall – the skull of a non-local man. That skull could have been a war trophy.
The animal teeth provided a reference point for the skulls, but also revealed the different approaches to resource management, and the mobility patterns for both the humans and animals in each city. These differences may be attributed to differences in cultural values, the researchers say – which, in turn, could play a role in the display of severed heads.
"This differentiation reflects a dynamic and complex society with important local and external interactions. Our study is a first approach to this archaeological problem using a method that is revolutionizing the way we study mobility in the past," Fuente-Seoane explains.
"At the same time, it suggests that the selection of individuals for the severed heads ritual was more complex than initially thought."
As with many practices of the ancient past, it will be extremely difficult, if not impossible, to ascertain the reasons behind why the Iberians decorated with skulls nailed to walls. But, as with many things we humans do, it seems even more possible than ever that there's no simple, singular explanation.
The team's research has been published in the Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports.
4,000-Year-Old Stonehenge-Like Circle Discovered in Denmark
Women Talk More Than Men After All, And By Quite a Lot
Man Searching For Dumped £600 Million Bitcoin Drive Has Better Odds of Winning Lottery

Orange background

Try Our AI Features

Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:

Comments

No comments yet...

Related Articles

Ancient cone-shaped skull shows signs of fatal trauma
Ancient cone-shaped skull shows signs of fatal trauma

Yahoo

time10 hours ago

  • Yahoo

Ancient cone-shaped skull shows signs of fatal trauma

Archeologists have spent over a decade excavating an ancient graveyard in western Iran known as Chegla Sofla. The Copper Age site contains a trove of skeletal remains, offering insight about regional life approximately 6,200 years ago, and even contains the oldest-known tomb constructed from brick. However, one of the most recent finds isn't a feat of engineering, but of body modification: the skull of a young girl with distinct evidence of cranial modification. And according to the team's conclusions recently detailed in the International Journal of Osteoarchaeology, she died from head trauma—but it's unclear what or who caused it. The practice of artificial head elongation has been documented across cultures around the world dating back millennia, including societies in Eurasia, Africa, South America, and the Americas. The desired results were typically accomplished by tightly binding a child's head with cloth bandages for years in order to mold their pliable cranial bones into the desired conical shape. Some of the earliest examples date to 9th millennium BCE proto-Neolithic groups living in present-day Iraq. But based on discoveries at Chegla Sofla, similar traditions extended well into the 5th millennium. Archeologists including experts at Iran's Tarbiat Modares University analyzed the remains to better understand their subject after excavating the skull of a young woman estimated to be under 20 years old. To do this, the team used computing tomography (CT) scanning to assess both her cranial bones and diploe—the spongy part of bones that function as shock absorbers. They determined her skull was thinner than usual—a feature indicative of cranial binding. CT scans also revealed a fracture extending from the front of the skull all the way to the rear with no signs of healing. The injury's severity is particularly prominent in the form of a triangular fracture along the left parietal bone's sagittal border. Further examination made it clear the injury was inflicted by a blunt object that did not penetrate the cranial vault. But beyond these findings, it's hard to know the circumstances surrounding her death. 'We know this woman experienced the fracture in the final moments of her life, but we don't have any direct evidence to say that someone intentionally struck her,' study lead author Mahdi Alirezazadeh told Live Science. While cranial elongation resulted in thinner bones more prone to fracturing, it seems clear that even a naturally developed skull wouldn't have fared well against the injury. 'It should be noted that the blow was so severe that it would have fractured a normal, unmodified skull as well,' explained Alirezazadeh. Unfortunately, there's little else currently available that might clarify the woman's final moments. Although her skull has been recovered, the same can't be said for the rest of her skeleton. Her remains were found in a mass grave at Chegla Sofla, so it may be a while before experts match the skull to other bones.

Dead Sea Scrolls aged decades older by AI-powered discovery
Dead Sea Scrolls aged decades older by AI-powered discovery

Yahoo

time6 days ago

  • Yahoo

Dead Sea Scrolls aged decades older by AI-powered discovery

'The implications are profound,' said Dr. Maruf Dhali, assistant professor of AI at Groningen and co‐author of the study. An international team led by the University of Groningen has combined radiocarbon dating, paleographic analysis and artificial intelligence to assign more precise dates to individual Dead Sea Scroll manuscripts, showing many are significantly older than previously believed. Using a deep‐learning model called Enoch, researchers input digitized images of 135 scroll fragments and trained the system to recognize microscopic ink‐trace patterns, such as curvature and character shape, alongside new radiocarbon results for 24 samples. By correlating these handwriting features with empirically established dates, the team narrowed dating uncertainty to roughly ±30 years, outperforming conventional radiocarbon ranges for the period of 300–50 BCE. Until now, most Dead Sea Scrolls had been broadly placed between the third century BCE and the second century CE based on paleography alone, a method that lacked solid empirical markers. 'There simply were no securely dated Hebrew or Aramaic manuscripts from the late Hellenistic era against which to compare,' explained Professor Mladen Popović, director of the Qumran Institute at Groningen. 'Our approach bridges that gap by using 24 radiocarbon‐anchored examples to give an objective timecode for handwriting styles.' BiNet, an earlier neural network that the Groningen group developed to detect handwritten ink traces, formed the foundation of Enoch's architecture. Once trained, Enoch produced date predictions that aligned remarkably closely with radiocarbon results—and, in some cases, suggested scrolls written in 'Hasmonaean‐type' script may date to decades earlier than the approximate 150–50 BCE range. Similarly, Herodian‐style fragments appear to have emerged in the late second century BCE rather than the mid‐first century BCE, indicating concurrent script traditions rather than a simple evolutionary sequence. 'The implications are profound,' said Dr. Maruf Dhali, assistant professor of artificial intelligence at Groningen and co‐author of the study published this week in PLOS One. 'With empirical evidence now anchoring paleographic analysis, scholars can revisit longstanding questions about when particular biblical texts circulated—and how these scripts relate to political and cultural shifts in ancient Judea.' Indeed, two biblical fragments—4QDanielc (4Q114) and 4QQoheleta (4Q109)—were shown by Enoch and new radiocarbon dates to originate roughly in the early 160s BCE and third century BCE respectively, matching the eras their anonymous authors likely composed the Books of Daniel and Ecclesiastes. 'This is the first tangible proof that portions of Daniel and Qohelet were penned contemporaneously with their presumed scribes,' noted Popović. 'It opens a window into the production of biblical literature at its very source.' Researchers stressed that Enoch does not replace human paleographers but augments their expertise with quantitative, explainable AI inferences. 'Within a few decades, we could use this model to date more than a thousand additional scroll fragments,' said Popović. 'The resulting new chronology will reshape our understanding of literacy, script development, and textual transmission in the eastern Mediterranean during the Hellenistic and early Roman eras.' Buddy Christ, an associate curator at the Israel Antiquities Authority who was not involved in the study, praised the advance: 'Marrying radiocarbon science with AI‐driven handwriting analysis represents a major leap forward. We now have a roadmap for dating unlabeled manuscripts across the Judean Desert corpus—and beyond.' The Enoch method could also be applied to other partially dated collections, such as Greek papyri or medieval European codices, providing a template for empirically grounded paleography. As the next step, Popović's team plans to make Enoch publicly accessible so that scholars worldwide can upload digitized manuscripts and receive probabilistic date estimates. For now, the Dead Sea Scrolls—drawing renewed attention thanks to this breakthrough—remain as historically vital as ever. With a precise 'timecode' now embedded in their script, the scrolls promise fresh insights into the political upheavals, theological debates, and cultural transformations that shaped the Jewish and early Christian worlds.

Many of Dead Sea scrolls may be older than thought, experts say
Many of Dead Sea scrolls may be older than thought, experts say

Yahoo

time6 days ago

  • Yahoo

Many of Dead Sea scrolls may be older than thought, experts say

Many of the Dead Sea scrolls could be older than previously thought, with some biblical texts dating from the time of their original authors, researchers say. The first of the ancient scrolls were discovered in the caves of Qumran in the Judean desert by Bedouin shepherds in the mid-20th century. The manuscripts range from legal documents to parts of the Hebrew Bible, and are thought to date from around the third century BCE to the second century CE. Now researchers have used artificial intelligence to glean fresh insights into the dates of individual scrolls – findings experts suggest could challenge ideas about when, where and by whom they were produced. 'It's like a time machine. So we can shake hands with these people from 2,000 years ago, and we can put them in time much better now, said Prof Mladen Popović, first author of the research from the University of Groningen in the Netherlands. While some scrolls were radiocarbon dated in the 1990s, Popović said scholars did not tackle the problem of castor oil contamination – a substance applied in the 1950s to help experts read the manuscripts, but which could skew results. In addition, many of the scrolls had only been dated by handwriting analysis. Writing in the journal Plos One, the team report how they attempted radiocarbon dating of 30 samples from different manuscripts found at four sites and thought to span five centuries. Crucially, the team first cleaned the samples to remove the castor oil contamination. The researchers successfully radiocarbon-dated 27 samples, finding that while two were younger than handwriting analysis had suggested, many were older. Among other findings, the researchers discovered two different writing styles, known as Hasmonean and Herodian scripts, coexisted for a much longer period than previously thought, while a sample from a manuscript called 4Q114 – which contains verses from the book of Daniel – was older than traditional palaeography had suggested. 'It was previously dated to the late second century BCE, a generation after the author of the Book of Daniel. Now, with our study we move back in time contemporary to that author,' said Popović. The team then used a type of AI known as machine learning to build a model they called Enoch – a nod to a biblical figure associated with scientific knowledge. The team trained Enoch by feeding it 62 digital images of ink traces from 24 of the radiocarbon dated manuscripts, together with the carbon-14 dates. They then verified the model by showing Enoch a further 13 images from the same manuscripts. In 85% of cases the model produced ages that tallied with the radiocarbon dates, and in many cases produced a smaller range of probable dates than obtained from radiocarbon dating alone. 'What we have created is a very robust tool that is empirically based – based on physics and on geometry,' said Popović. When Enoch was presented with images from 135 undated manuscripts it had not previously seen, it realistically dated 79% of them – as judged by expert palaeographers. Popović added those deemed unrealistic might have had problematic data, such as poor quality images. The system has already produced new insights including that a copy of the biblical book Ecclesiastes dates from the time of the book's presumed author. Popović said Enoch meant the age of further scrolls could now be uncovered without radiocarbon dating – a process that requires the destruction of small samples. 'There are more than 1,000 Dead Sea scrolls manuscripts so our study is a first but significant step, opening a door unto history with new possibilities for research,' he said. Prof emerita Joan Taylor of King's College London, said the results would have a major impact on Qumran studies. 'These results mean that most of the manuscripts found in the caves near Qumran would not have been written at the site of Qumran, which was not occupied until later,' she said. However, Dr Matthew Collins of the University of Chester cautioned that radiocarbon dating only shed light on the age of the parchment, not when it was written on, while there were also questions about how stylistically representative the small number of training samples were for different periods in time. 'Overall, this is an important and welcome study, and one which may provide us with a significant new tool in our armoury for dating these texts,' he said. 'Nevertheless, it's one that we should adopt with caution, and in careful conjunction with other evidence.'

DOWNLOAD THE APP

Get Started Now: Download the App

Ready to dive into the world of global news and events? Download our app today from your preferred app store and start exploring.
app-storeplay-store