It’s interesting to discover how one man’s production of carved wooden skulls connects to history, mythology, anthropology, psychology, and even physiology… There’s a small part of the human brain that has a very specific responsibility: it recognizes faces. This...

Original oil painting by Frans Hals, 1625 typifies the Vanitas genre with symbolic images of a nearly-extinguished candle, a wilting flower, and of course, a skull. Photograph from Wikipedia Commons.When photographic techniques and equipment were developed, artists...

Long ago and right now, one of the images most frequently tattooed on people’s bodies is skulls. Whether they be grinning, smiling, threatening, wrapped in ribbons or words or flowers or flames, skulls seem to be nearly universal in appeal.As one website dedicated...

When Richard and Judy visited Mexico during late October, they were struck by signs of coming festivities everywhere: paper and foil decorations and an air of holiday excitement and fun, and shop windows full of … painted skulls It seemed a strange combination of...

Did you know that a skull has one of the most recognized and beloved roles in Shakespeare’s plays?In “the Scottish play” (theater folks know about the “curse” that is attached to Hamlet, and won’t say the title aloud), the hero, Prince Hamlet, is tossed a skull that...

There’s a certain accessory that sometimes holds a place of focus in the homes of trendy young fashionistas: skulls. Skulls realistic, skulls stylized, wood skulls, 3D wooden skulls, skulls decorated and skulls plain, and although it sounds a trifle gruesome to some,...

“Crystal skull” carved from a single block of quartz , acquired from Tiffany and Co., New York around 1897 by the British Museum, dating probably to the second half of the 19th century. Photograph at britishmuseum.org, Research News, Studying the Crystal Skull,...

Argh, mateys! Would you like to hear a tale of death and regret, of dying on the high seas, and of death in a bottle where little kiddies are warned never to pry?Well then, put up your saber and pull up a stool, and listen.We all know it well, we do, the little skull...