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Julian Cope presents Head Heritage

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Traditional African tool resembles a stone axe
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BuckyE
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Re: Traditional African tool resembles a stone axe
Dec 07, 2012, 06:07
I definitely don't know enough about this to be dependable, but...

It's beginning to seem to me that there are two very different concepts involved. Or perhaps, not VERY different to modern minds, but at least discriminatable to the ancients.

Skulls/heads are referenced in dozens of ancient traditions. Here's a few off the top of my head (so to speak, "ouch").
1. Human/animal hybribs: Paleolithic up through historic: the Lion Man; the antlered shaman; the Khorsabad winged human headed bulls; a dozen Egyptian hybrid gods.
2. Skulls/heads: Herto skulls (assuming they weren't anomalies); Catal Huyuk bucrania and headless figures under vultures; Natufian decorated skulls from Jordan; "Celtic heads" in hundreds of sculptures, Celtic heads as war trophies; possible discriminations of skulls in English Neolithic barrows.

On the other hand, as you reference, there are probably just as many instances of long bone discrimination/organizing and whole skeleton interments in at least the English/western Mediterranean traditions. Not to mention the instances of seemingly indiscriminate cremated remains.

So it seems to me there must have been, almost right from the start, some kind of recognition/imagination that the head has/had a special significance as opposed to the rest of the body. The sub-skull body still had significance, in certain times and places, but its meaning must have been different.

Holy Toledo, there have to be a dozen PhD theses here. Databases, databases!
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