Abstract: The early Neolithic human skull, Qihe III, found in Zhangping, Fujian Province, and dated about 10,000 years ago is described in this paper. Qihe III is the earliest and most complete human skull currently identified in the Fujian area; thus it is an important piece in the analysis of craniofacial variation of human physical characteristics of southern Chinese, and the formation and differentiation of modern human populations in the Late Pleistocene to Holocene transition. Qihe III belongs to a middle-age male about 35 years old. The individual suffers from a severe carious lesion. It is supposed that the people to which this skull belongs mainly relied on agriculture. Compared with crania from the Late Pleistocene of Liujiang, Upper Cave 101, and 14 Neolithic groups, the skull of Qihe shows mixed physical characteristics of the Neolithic southern and Neolithic northern populations, and of the Late Pleistocene. The Qihe III has a long head and a large cranial capacity similar to the Late Homo sapiens. His high and narrow face, medium orbital height, broad and low nasal shape, is unidentified as a southern or northern pattern. The results of principal components analysis of the cranial measurements show no significant differences were found between the Neolithic southern and northern groups. However in cranial index or cranial shape, the craniofacial morphology indicates spatial-temporal variation among Late Homo sapiens, Neolithic southern and Neolithic northern groups. Early Neolithic skulls show a large variation during the Late Pleistocene to Holocene transition.

Key words: Qihe cave; Human skull; Early Neolithic; Anatomy