Ali Kosh Lady and her Artificially Modified Head: An Appraisal

Abstract

We had the opportunity to examine the cranium of a young woman found at the well-known Neolithic site of Ali Kosh<br />on the Deh Luran plain in southwestern Iran. It has previously been claimed that her head shows traces of modification,<br />a practice which can be termed as either cultural or artificial cranial modification. Here, we describe several macroscopic<br />characteristics of the modified crania and discuss how this claim can be dismissed. Our craniometric study of the Ali<br />Kosh cranium showed that the morphological state of that cranium is analogous to that of the crania of modern humans.<br />A comparison of the morphological change patterns of deformed crania and development of wormian bones with that of<br />Ali Kosh suggest that the Ali Kosh cranium is not the result of artificial head deformations.