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Jericho Void
2024
This impression was made from a 9,500 year old decorated skull found in Jericho, a city in the West Bank, Palestine just north of the Dead Sea. It's speculated that the person who lived with this skull was around 40 at the time of their death though the cause of death is unclear. When they were an infant their head had been tightly bound which permanently altered its shape. They had broken their nose during their life but it had healed before they died. They had abscesses in their teeth that likely caused them pain.
After the death, after the flesh was gone, the lower jaw of the skull was removed and the cranium was carefully packed with soil to support the fragile facial bones. The exterior of the skull was coated in lime plaster that was modeled to represent a living face. A small ear was rendered, lips, broken shells for eyes.
In 1953 the skull was found by a British archeologist, Kathleen Kenyon, along with seven other similar decorated skulls. Kenyon thought that the skulls represented early evidence of collective grieving or ancestor worship. In 2016 Daniel Pett at the British Museum used photogrammetry software to translate 138 photographs of the skull into a 3D model that was subsequently made available to the public the following year.
In the summer of 2024 I 3D printed the front half of the skull in polylactic acid (PLA) and treated its surface with soil and sand mixed with epoxy to emulate the surface of the original object. I made a silicone mold of the treated print then cast the positive in a soft polyurethane rubber so that I could make a negative impression in plaster without getting stuck on the undercuts around the nose and cheek bones.
Jericho Void was installed in the wall at Julius Caesar gallery as part of the exhibition Earthly Delights. It was presented across the room from Cantaloupe Void, an impression made from a fresh cantaloupe. Both voids were centered 48 inches above the floor, the height of an average eight-year-old.