RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 Earliest-known intentionally deformed human cranial fossil from Asia and the initiation of hereditary hierarchy in the early Holocene
JF bioRxiv
FD Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory
SP 530907
DO 10.1101/530907
A1 Xijun Ni
A1 Qiang Li
A1 Thomas A. Stidham
A1 Yangheshan Yang
A1 Qiang Ji
A1 Changzhu Jin
A1 Khizar Samiullah
YR 2019
UL http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2019/01/26/530907.abstract
AB Hereditary hierarchy is one of the major features of complex societies. Without a written record, prehistoric evidence for hereditary hierarchy is rare. Intentional cranial deformation (ICD) is a cross-generational cultural practice that embodies social identity and culture beliefs in adults through the behavior of altering infant head shape. Therefore, ICD is usually regarded as an archeological clue for the occurrence of hereditary hierarchy. With a calibrated radiocarbon age of 11245-11200 years BP, a fossil skull of an adult male displaying ICD discovered in Northeastern China is among the oldest-known ICD practices in the world. Along with the other earliest global occurrences of ICD, this discovery points to the early initiation of complex societies among the non-agricultural local societies in Northeastern Asia in the early Holocene. A population increase among previously more isolated terminal Pleistocene/early Holocene hunter-gatherer groups likely increased their interactions, possibly fueling the formation of the first complex societies.