Earliest-known intentionally deformed human cranium from Asia

Abstract

Hereditary hierarchy is one of the major features of complex societies. Without a written record, prehistoric evidence for hereditary hierarchy is rare. Intentional cranial deformation (ICD) is a ritualized and cross-generational cultural practice that embodies social identity and cultural beliefs in adults through the behavior of permanently and immutably altering infant head shape. Therefore, ICD is usually regarded as an archeological clue for the occurrence of hereditary hierarchy. With a calibrated radiocarbon age of 11,245–11,200 years BP, a fossil skull of an adult male discovered in Northeastern China is among the oldest-known ICD in the world. The fossil demonstrates the oldest application of the more sophisticated tabular deformation methodology that requires securing hard flat surfaces to the forehead and back of the skull of infants, differing from the other earliest-known records of ICD that used other processes. Along with the other earliest global occurrences of ICD, this discovery points to the early initiation of complex societies among the non-agricultural local societies in Northeastern Asia in the early Holocene. A population increase among previously more isolated terminal Pleistocene/early Holocene hunter-gatherer groups likely increased their interactions, possibly fueling the formation of the first complex societies.