Page 13 of 15
Stories
No. 019
Phineas Gage's Skull
In 1848 an iron rod passed through Phineas Gage's head and he lived. What happened, how his personality changed, what his skull shows and where it is today.
No. 018
Trepanation
Trepanation is the ancient practice of opening the skull. Why people did it, how it was done, the oldest examples and the survival rates from healed bone.
No. 017
Phrenology Heads and Skulls
A phrenology head is a numbered teaching bust from a nineteenth-century theory of reading character from the skull. What the numbers mean, who made them and why it faded.
No. 016
What Happened to Oliver Cromwell's Head? From a Spike to a Secret Grave
Cromwell's body was exhumed in 1661 and his head set above Westminster Hall. How it passed from owner to owner, the 1934 study and its 1960 burial at Sidney Sussex College.
No. 015
What Happened to Mozart's Skull? The Salzburg Skull and the DNA Mystery
A skull attributed to Mozart is held by the Mozarteum in Salzburg. How it got there, why his grave was unmarked, what the 2006 DNA tests showed, and Haydn's skull.
No. 014
Saint Valentine's Skull
A flower-crowned skull in Rome's Santa Maria in Cosmedin is venerated as Saint Valentine's. Learn its story, who Valentine was, and where else his relics are kept.
No. 013
Skull Cups
Skull cups have a long documented history, from Gough's Cave 14,700 years ago to Scythian cups, the Tibetan kapala and Lord Byron's cup at Newstead Abbey.
No. 012
What Does a Skull Mean in Heraldry? Blazons, Arms and Flags
A skull has no fixed meaning in heraldry. See how heralds blazon skulls and death's heads, and real arms and flags from Tlaxcala, Spain, Scotland and Canada.
No. 011
The Skull Chapel in Czermna, Poland
The Skull Chapel in Czermna, Poland holds about 3,000 skulls and bones. Learn who built it, why Father Tomaszek gathered the dead and how it compares with Sedlec.