Thanks for commenting. What you’ve questioned is definitely possible but not necessarily probable. I’ll tell you why.

Firstly, the man is propped up and buried in a grave, check out the above photo. If he wasn’t buried in a grave, then yes, his head would have likely disarticulated after a certain stage in decomposition. But he was buried, staged up/rested against the wall of his grave. If his head did fall off, we’d expect it somewhere in the walls of his grave.

Secondly, and to answer your question, Conlee mentioned in the National Geographic interview that,

“The skeleton … bears gruesome evidence of the decapitation, including cut marks indicating that the bone was fresh when damaged… ‘Someone spent quite a bit of effort cutting off the head,’ mostly likely with a sharp obsidian knife.”

With only a skeleton and a jar, we will never truly know what exactly happened to his head and where it is. Without more evidence, it is hard to say if the cut marks on the bone happened at the time of death or immediately after. What the cut marks can only tell us, however, is that his head was removed.

So what that said, the possibility he was sacrificed or executed is a likely explanation as is a unique burial ritual, as I questioned. Maybe in ancient Nascan culture keeping the heads of your dead ancestors was kosher? I don’t enough about the Nascan to say that’s true or not, anyone out there that can? But my hypothesis is also another possible explanation given that he was buried with a specialized head jar along with him. Sometimes the sacrifice card isn’t trumped-up to be what it is, especially given the context that Nascan culture hasn’t yet yielded many other sacrifice warning signs to be thinking that way.

Anyways, thanks for commenting. Got me to think this Saturday morning. Nice blog, by the way!

Kambiz