Footnote 1 – Excavating Catalhoyuk
For example, all of the skeletons excavated at the Neolithic site of Ain Ghazal, in Jordan, were missing heads. One interpretation is that the head symbolized authority and was removed so that authority would remain with the living, rather than with the dead. See Gary O. Rollefson, “Invoking the Spirit: Prehistoric Religion at Ain Ghazal,” Archaeology Odyssey, Premiere Issue, 1998.