Skulls

Beheaded by colonizers, buried by descendants: France finally returns skull of Malagasy King Toera

A symbol of brutal colonialism comes home after more than a century.

Illustration: Flags of France and Madagascar.
The Petralona skull.

Mystery at Petralona Cave: 286,000-year-old skull near Thessaloniki upends the human family tree

Marcel and his parents with the skull fragment.

11-year-old boy uncovers 50,000-year-old skull on river walk

A statue of Sir Thomas More, located at Chelsea Old Church in Chelsea, London, UK.

St. Thomas More's skull may be exhumed from Canterbury church after nearly 500 years


'Dragon Man' skull identified as Denisovan through DNA analysis

Thanks to the well-preserved Harbin skull, we finally know what Denisovans looked like.

 'Dragon Man' skull identified as Denisovan through DNA analysis.

Mass grave from Greek Civil War discovered in Thessaloniki

City officials are taking steps to conduct DNA testing on the remains and are inviting families of the missing to provide their genetic material.

 Mass grave from Greek Civil War discovered in Thessaloniki.

Oxford academics used a human skull cup at official dinners until 2015

Professor believes the skull belonged to an enslaved woman from the Caribbean.

 Main entrance of the Worcester college in Oxford, UK.

Hungary's King Matthias Corvinus found? Researchers run DNA tests on mystery skull

Renowned for his contributions to Hungary, Matthias Corvinus reformed the judicial system and is best known for having one of the first permanent armies in Europe.

 The statue of Matthias Corvinus (Matei Corvin) in the Union Square in Cluj Napoca, Romania.

Decapitated male skulls in Iberia are likely ‘war trophies’ used for intimidation, study finds

At Puig Castellar, isotope analysis revealed that three of the four individuals differed from the local strontium reference, suggesting they were probably not from the local community.

 Decapitated male skulls in Iberia are likely ‘war trophies’ used for intimidation, study finds

Skull once believed to belong to Cleopatra's sister identified as male

By the 1990s, researchers proposed that the unusual burial might have belonged to Cleopatra’s half-sister, who some believed was executed in Ephesus in 41 BCE at the demand of Mark Antony.

 Front view of marble statue of the ancient Egyptian princess Cleopatra, made by Girolamo Masini in 1882.

Skull with 'execution-style wounds' sheds light on colonial Indonesia - study

Interpreting the pattern of trauma within the context of the colonial period in Papua, this female individual may have been murdered, possibly as a slave taken during tribal warfare.

 Trepanated skull of a woman-Tumb 3 Corseaux-En Seyton-on display 6, Cantonal Museum of Archeology and History.

Fragments of Beethoven’s skull returned to Austrian university

In 1863, Kaufmann’s great uncle, Franz Romeo Seligmann, had been a Viennese physician, medical historian and anthropologist who was among those involved in the 863 reburial of Beethoven's body.

A portrait of Ludwig van Beethoven

Excessive gaming dented this man's skull

A gamer was horrified after he shaved his head during a live broadcast and discovered that a dent had formed in his skull - exactly in the area where the headset arch is located.

 Human skull lateral view illustrative

Scientists reconstruct 35,000 year old face - study

The skeleton, per the scientific report, was discovered in 1980 in the Nile Valley in Egypt.

 Researchers created two facial approximations of an ancient Egyptian man using photogrammetry.

Skull found in Turkey with neat hole may have been the work of mystics

Trepanation, a procedure which involves drilling a hole into the patient's skull, is one of the oldest known surgical procedures in human history.

 Trepanated skull of a woman-Tumb 3 Corseaux-En Seyton-on display 6, Cantonal Museum of Archeology and History.