The most complete cranium from Krapina bears a series of 35 mostly parallel tiny cut marks running from slightly above the brow ridge over the forehead towards the rear of the skull. Just 5mm (0.2in.) long, they don’t fit any butchery pattern, are totally unique at that site and have no parallels in any other hominin skulls, whatever the species. Yet they do recall something. They represent the longest series of sequential markings made by Neanderthals, even more than on the hyaena bone at Les Pradelles or the raven at Zaskalnaya. Their placement on a hominin bone, and moreover a skull – the
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