Archaeologists found three Neolithic human skull fragments at Göbekli Tepe carved with deep, deliberate grooves after death, a form of skull modification not previously recorded in the Neolithic of the region.
Notes on verification
Confirmed by peer-reviewed Science Advances study (Gresky, Haelm & Clare 2017) and corroborated by independent secondary sources including the German Archaeological Institute's own blog, Smithsonian, and phys.org.
Sources
- Hints of Skull Cult Found at World's Oldest Temple (nationalgeographic.com)
- https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.1700564 (science.org)
- https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/ancient-temple-shows-evidence-stone-age-skull-cult-180963877/ (smithsonianmag.com)
- https://www.dainst.blog/the-tepe-telegrams/2017/06/28/new-publication-in-science-advances-evidence-for-skull-cult-at-gobekli-tepe/ (dainst.blog)