Simulacra of the ancestors

The ‘skull cults’ of the Neolithic Near East have long attracted scholarly attention but are often treated as an isolated regional phenomenon. This study explores their deeper origins and broader connections by examining material culture and symbolic practices from c. 150 000 to 8000 BP across Europe and the Near East. Using multifactorial statistical analyses of 32 features covering demography, body treatment, burial contexts, and grave goods from 219 sites, we integrate archaeological, climatic, theoretical, and archaeogenetic data. Results suggest that some traits of the Neolithic Southwest Asian ‘skull cults’ originated in the Middle Palaeolithic, while their defining distinction – primary burials in domestic settings versus secondary burials in public areas – emerged during the Mid-Upper Palaeolithic, notably at Pavlov (Czechia). The diversification of ‘skull cults’ accelerated after the Last Glacial Maximum amid large-scale population movements. In the Early Holocene, as agricultural households developed, these rituals were gradually replaced by new symbolic media such as pottery, figurines, and stamps – the so-called Neolithic Package. These portable ‘simulacra’ redefined representations of the body, house, and community. Although ‘skull cults’ disappeared, their symbolic legacy persisted, transmitted through material proxies that carried shared ideological codes across post-LGM Europe and the Near East.