The skull was recovered from a rock shelter in an archaeological site known as Lapa do Santo, situated in east-central Brazil. They found the beheaded skull of young man in a grave 22 inch beneath the surface of earth.
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The art of human decapitation is one we might have practiced in the Americas for even longer than previously thought, according to a new study published Wednesday in the open access journal PLOS ONE. The researchers said they also found that there were several limestone slabs placed on the grave, estimated to be between 9,127 and 9,438 years old.
In 2007, researchers found fragments of a buried physique, together with a skull, jaw, the primary six cervical vertebrae, and two severed palms on the website. The latest discovery shows that the practice could have been present in other areas in South America as well.
A 9,000-year-old skull found in Brazil might just be the oldest example of decapitation in the American continent.
Further, the researchers suggest the arrangement of the body parts meshes with a public display component in a ritual meant to enhance social cohesion within the community.
If that is the case, these stays might reveal refined mortuary rituals amongst hunter-gatherers in the Americas throughout this time interval, researchers stated.
While researchers are unable to pinpoint the exact reason for this decapitation, it may have been part of a burial ritual, the authors say. Certainly the positioning of the hands seems to be filled with meaning – right hand on the left side, left on the right, pointing in opposite directions.
Strauss consulted professor Sue Black from the University of Dundee’s Centre for Anatomy and Human identification, who compared the remains to those of a modern-day case of decapitation. “This ritualized burial attests to the early sophistication of mortuary rituals among hunter-gatherers in the Americas”.
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“In the apparent absence of wealth goods or elaborate architecture, Lagoa Santa’s inhabitants seemed to be using the human body to reify and express their cosmological principles concerning death”, the authors wrote in the study.
