Archaeologists discovered three Neolithic human skull fragments at Göbekli Tepe in Turkey bearing deep, purposeful linear grooves, a form of post-mortem skull modification never previously documented anywhere in the world.
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. [cascade flags: aggregator_dropped_primary_exists | tier=silver indep_score=0.867 clusters=3 claim_tier=notable]
Sources
- Hints of Skull Cult Found at World's Oldest Temple (seed:history_and_archaeology)
- https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.1700564 (corroboration)
- https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/ancient-temple-shows-evidence-stone-age-skull-cult-180963877/ (corroboration)
- https://www.dainst.blog/the-tepe-telegrams/2017/06/28/new-publication-in-science-advances-evidence-for-skull-cult-at-gobekli-tepe/ (corroboration)