A "plastered skull"

[In] 7000 BCE Jericho, the dead were often buried beneath the floors of houses. In some instances the bodies were complete, but in others the skull was removed and treated separately, with the facial features reconstructed in plaster. The removal of the skull from the body and its separate burial was widely practiced in the Levant during the seventh millennium BCE. As in this example, the lower jaw was often removed and then, carefully and sensitively, the skull was remodeled with plaster to build up the facial features. Shells, either cowries or, as here, bivalves, were set into the empty sockets to represent the eyes. The skull was decorated with red and black paint to depict individual characteristics such as hair and even mustaches. It is possible that this practice was part of an ancestor cult. Similarly plastered skulls have been found at sites in Palestine, Syria and Jordan.

Read more about this and other skulls at the British Museum.