objects found in Early Neolithic villages of the Levantine Corridor
"heads that were removed from burials of women, men and occasionally children in a secondary process, after the corpse had decomposed. Once separated from the body, they were cleaned and carefully modelled over with clay, then coated with layers of plaster to become something altogether different. Shells were often fixed into the eye sockets, just as clay and plaster filled in for the flesh and skin. Red and white paint added further life. Skull portraits appear to have been treasured heirlooms, carefully stored and repaired over generations." (246)