The major limitations of our study are that (1) we looked at specimens of only 10
crania (the 5 with the largest areas of mastoid pneumatization and the 5 with the smallest) and (2) we had no specific information about age, sex, or otologic history.
Researchers at other Neolithic sites in the Near East have often surmised that skulls and
crania were acquired in this manner (e.g., Kuijt 2000; Stordeur 2015), but very rarely has direct stratigraphic evidence been presented (see Goring-Morris and Horwitz 2007 for one example).
If, however, this hypothesis was not rejected, modified and unmodified
crania may be used in biological affinity studies utilizing craniofacial metric analyses.
The removal of a femur, the longest bone in the human body, would have displaced the three
crania, the pelvic bones, and many other bones, yet no evidence of such disturbance was found.
Iscan, "Sexual dimorphism in the
crania and mandibles of South African whites," Forensic Science International, vol.
Between 2001 and 2005, the first author measured over 1,300 adult
crania held in anatomical institutions across India, along with a small number in Adelaide, Australia.
(1)
crania of macerated dead humans received by the institutions mentioned before,
Modern comparative samples were provided by the 101 modern Australians measured by Howells (1973) and an additional 127 modern New Guinea
crania measured by the lead author.
All of the
crania in this Spanish sample originated from a 16th to 17th-century community associated with a church in northwestern Spain.
Only
crania of mammals were counted in obtaining totals, to avoid the possibility of double-counting, but mandibles and other skeletal elements were retained to aid in identification.
To aid this process, we colour-coded lesions believed to be related using the software's paint option, something which proved extremely useful when we next imported digital animal
crania to test our identified bites.
Ngandong is clearly atypical of other discoveries of hominin remains in fluvial deposits because so many
crania are present, but so few other skeletal elements.