Julian Cope presents Head Heritage

Of course . Why not ?

It may not have been as common as a couple of centuries ago or today , for the obvious reasons , age of death being younger , recognition , avoidance of some of the contemporary environmental factors etc . But it has been discovered much earlier than the example linked and even earlier in the neolithic and also much earlier than that e.g. The Neandethal cancer found at Krapina is at least 100,000 YA .The genetic propensity was around a long time ago .