The skull sample he came across was of a type he had never seen before. This skull was surrounded by unidentified objects and surprisingly managed to be preserved underground for thousands of years.
So what exactly were the things on the skull that an archaeologist unearthed during the excavation?
A skull from the Old Stone Age found in Italy’s Caviglione Cave had extraordinary details.
This skeleton, discovered by archaeologist Emile Riviere during excavations in 1872, was initially thought to belong to a man. For this reason, the skeleton was nicknamed “Mentone Man”.
However, as a result of the archaeologist’s studies, it was determined that this body belonged to a woman and it became known as the “Cavigliona Woman”. As a result of DNA analysis, this tall woman was 37 years old when she died, she had probably given birth several times and was already pregnant.
Its remarkable feature would be if the skull were not covered with small seashells and red deer or dog teeth. These seashells were intertwined and almost resembled a headdress.
So why was the Cavigliona Woman’s skull covered with seashells and animal teeth?
Actually, the answer to this question is quite controversial. Old Stone Age people believed in life after death, and it was customary to put such a headdress on the deceased before being placed in the grave.
Valuable items and accessories were indicators of belonging to a certain class, and people who wore them proved their social superiority. According to another view, such a headdress was a sign of holiness, not power.
Thus, an idea emerged that mothers wore this accessory made of seashells and animal teeth.
Apart from the Woman of Cavigliona, there were three other people, two of whom were women, who lived in that period and wore a similar headdress. The first of these was the Prince of Arene Candide, a 15-year-old boy. Candide owed his nickname The Prince to the extraordinary equipment with which he was buried, and his skull was surrounded by a cap made of hundreds of perforated shells.
Ostuni Woman Delia was a pregnant woman who lived approximately 27,000 years ago. Delia’s head was adorned with a headdress painted in red ocher and covered with various shells and deer teeth.
Finally, the Paglicci Woman, whose body was unearthed in 1989 as a result of excavations, was buried with a headdress similar to the other women she lived with in the same period. There were seven-hole deer teeth on the front of a dark yellow cap.
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