The skull with crossed bones in Russian culture has a stable name "Adam's head" and has a Christian origin. According to legend, the Savior of the world, Lord Jesus Christ, was crucified on the site of the ancient grave of the forefather Adam, and the blood of the God-man, flowing down the base of the Cross, fell on the head of the first man buried here, which washed away the sin of the forefather, committed in the Garden of Eden. Thus, the head of Adam has the symbolic meaning of deliverance from death and salvation in the Christian sense.

The image of the skull is included in many versions of the Crucifixion or the Cross, for example, it is applied to the Orthodox monastic schema.