Human Skull - Craniometry and Morphology of Human Skulls

Craniometry and Morphology of Human Skulls

Like the face of a living individual, a human skull and teeth can also tell, to a certain degree, the life history and origin of its owner. Forensic scientists and archaeologists use metric and nonmetric traits to estimate what the bearer of the skull looked like. When a significant amount of bones are found, such as at Spitalfields in the UK and Jōmon shell mounds in Japan, osteologists can use traits, such as the proportions of length, height and width, to know the relationships of the population of the study with other living or extinct populations.

The German physician Franz Joseph Gall in around 1800 formulated the theory of phrenology, which attempted to show that specific features of the skull are associated with certain personality traits or intellectual capabilities of its owner. His theory is now considered to be pseudoscientific. However, despite the pseudoscientific beginnings it is now well established that cranium size and brain size does correlate with IQ, at 0.20 and 0.40 respectively. The correlation with psychometric intelligence is even higher at 0.63.