Plastered human skulls are human skulls covered in layers of plaster and typically found in the ancient Levant, most notably around the modern Palestinian city of Jericho, between 8,000 and 6,000 BC, in the Pre-Pottery Neolithic B period. They represent some of the oldest forms of art in the Middle East and demonstrate that the prehistoric population took great care in burying their ancestors below their homes. The skulls denote some of the earliest sculptural examples of portraiture in the history of art.
Plastered skull, Tell es-Sultan, Jericho, from approximately 9000 years ago (British Museum)
Plastered skulls on exhibition at the Israel Museum, Jerusalem
Plastered skull from Beisamoun (replica), PPNB, Museum of Prehistory, Haifa
Plastered skulls in situ at Yiftahel, Pre-Pottery Neolithic B
Plaster is a building material used for the protective or decorative coating of walls and ceilings and for moulding and casting decorative elements. In English, "plaster" usually means a material used for the interiors of buildings, while "render" commonly refers to external applications. The term stucco refers to plasterwork that is worked in some way to produce relief decoration, rather than flat surfaces.
Stucco plaster reliefs, such as this work at the Chateau de Fontainebleau, were hugely influential in Northern Mannerism. A plaster low-relief decorative frieze is above it.
Applying mud plaster to an outside wall
Clay plaster base coat on split oak lath held in place with straw and manure, covered with a lime plaster top coat, Old Economy Village, Pennsylvania (1827)
Lime setting-coat on clay plaster with straw binder. Applied to hand-split lath over a timber framed wall of a brick family house at Old Economy Village, Pennsylvania