SKULL
Cova Beneito (Muro d'Alcoi)

Human bones
h: 17.6 cm; l: 13.5 cm; w: 10 cm
Upper Palaeolithic
Solutreo-Gravettian, 17,000 BP
 

Partially reconstructed skull of a young woman (20-25 years old). It is slender with a wide forehead, medium sized cranial vault and generally not very pronounced muscle insertion grooves. Near to the right eye there is a mark of a small healed injury. In the roof of the eye socket there are signs of cribra orbitalia (small holes in the bone) which is associated with anaemia, fever or infections. The skull appears have some cut marks in the bone made by a flint tool which have been interpreted as indicating some kind of ritual practice, as has been described for similar examples found in Western Europe.

In the same stratigraphical levels a fragment of skull from another younger individual was found. Both isolated skulls have been interpreted as secondary burials.
C.S. 1600
ITURBE POLO, G. et al., 1994.