Whatever the case, when warlords and writers want to evoke terror, they create gargantuan piles of Nothing But Skulls. It's also what you're left with when you take heads as trophies and leave the rest on the battlefield. While a given human has multiple of the majority of other bones (and the most visible exception, the spine, takes up a lot more room per victim). Or perhaps it's the fact that skulls represent a one-to-one ratio of bones to corpses, giving an instant clue on how many lives must have (been) ended to produce this. It helps too that skulls stack up so neatly. Other bones do not carry the same emotive weight few people could identify a human kneecap on sight, let alone associate it with atrocities. A human skull is instantly recognizable, making it a powerful symbol of death. There are good narrative and practical reasons for this. It doesn't matter whether the victims were killed by ancient death traps, man-eating monsters or barbarian hordes nothing remains but the skull. The rest of the bones vanish without explanation.
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