Not all the beheaded were turned into trophies.

Recent finds show that some people were decapitated without fully being made into trophy heads. This is the base of the skull near the foramen magnum where the spinal cord sits. The image shows a "chop mark" on the left occipital condyle of this old adult male. This is considered a chop mark rather than a cutmark because it is wider than 3mm, and would have been made with an axe instead of a knife or blade. This part of the skull has already been removed from all the trophy heads, but the presence of this chop mark is important because it shows us that the first step in trophy head manufacturing was to lop off the head.