Elongated skulls: an inexplicable custom of the Paracas culture

The ruling classes from everywhere and from all ages have wanted to differentiate themselves from the commons of the people, perhaps to justify by means of bodily signs their supposed superiority over the subject people.And not only the rulers, wealthy families, who in human social systems would be located at the top of the social structure, also had badges , be it the type of clothing or the color of them, or any accessory that only they could carry.

So it has been since the human being organized socially, some societies could be more open than others but the structure was always designed to mark the differences between who was in charge and who were the errands The practice of elongation of skulls is one of these customs for to point out differences, as we will see.

Elongated skulls, world evidence

Lengthening the skull is modifying it artificially mind to change its original form.The normal growth of the children's skull is distorted through the use of force, and it can be in several ways: flat and elongated-selling two wooden plates on the sides of the head-, round-sold with fabrics– and conica.

This procedure is done when the baby is a newborn, because at this stage the skull is very malleable and the bones have not yet welded.Approximately the month of birth begins and it lasts at least 6 months, until the skull has the desired shape.

Examples of these unusual practices have been found in periods of up to 45,000 years old, in homo sapiens proto Neolithic skulls found in the cave of Shanidar, in Iraq, but it also happened in the Neolithic populations, a little more modern, of Southwest Asia.

Elongated skulls: an inexplicable custom of the Paracas culture

Skeletons of two children of Grimaldi, 11,000 years old.National Museum of Archeology in Saint Germain, France

Hippocrates, in 400 BC, describes for the first time this cranial deformation in an African tribe , and were called Macrocephalos or Longheads .

A little further here in time, in Europe, both the Huns and the Alans (Eurasian first, Iranian the second) also they practiced this custom of lengthening the skulls, and in the years 300-600 AD, the eastern Germanic peoples-fastidious, herulos, ostrogoths, burgundios and rounds-, ruled by the Huns, adopted the practice, instead, among the West Germanic peoples It was nothing common.

The case of America

In this continent, the Maya and the Incas-and certain tribes of the United States-practiced cranial lengthening.In the United States, towards especially between the Chinook (northwest) and Choctaw (to the southeast).There was a group that was known as the flathead , but not because they modified their skull but precisely because they did not, in contrast to Salishanos peoples that did modified the head to make it more round.

Elongated skulls: an inexplicable custom of the Paracas culture

Painting by Paul Kane.It shows a Chinook child in the process of cranial deformation, and an adult with the elongated skull

All these villages practiced head flattening by tying the baby's head to a wooden baby carrier.

Los Paracas

It was a pre-Inca town that lived south of the capital, on the coast of Peru.Various archaeological investigations suggest that it existed between 700 BC and 100 AD, but there is no conclusive evidence in this regard due to the scarce carbon tests 14 that have been done in the area and in the organic findings.

Since the end It is from the 20s of the last century, it was learned that grave robbers had found large batches of funeral materials, expensive textiles, ceremonial offerings and ceramics on one site, Cerro Colorado (now protected area in the Paracas Ecological Reserve), and Julio C.Tello coordinated the excavations.

Elongated skulls: an inexplicable custom of the Paracas culture

Here we have found many strange things, and the strangest of all and therefore gives title to our article, is that the nobility practiced cranial deformation, and not only that but two archaeologists, Juan Navarro and Brien Foerster, found at least 5 different forms of elongated heads , being able to distinguish the types in specific cemeteries.

The largest skulls and more surprising are from Chongos, near the town of Pisco, north of Paracas.

The procedure

As we pointed out at the beginning of the article, they splintered the babies' heads and thus He was shaping the skull as they grew, his face stretched and his head stretched, and it lasted about two years, until the desired shape was achieved.

They were not all children of the nobility ; some were chosen from birth, and were destined to be part of the political and religious elite , wanting to and they themselves felt special and were seen by the rest as privileged.

The truth is that with this practice, these ancient inhabitants of Peru managed to increase cranial capacity by 25% more than contemporary skulls, and weighed 60% more, according to the tests done .The orbital cavities were also larger and the jaws larger and thicker.

Elongated skulls: an inexplicable custom of the Paracas culture

However, specialists assume that when lobules are compressed, the motor system could have been affected, and the same thing would happen in the later areas of the brain-which sank-and could generate visual distortions in these “chosen ones.” Both, the motor difficulty and its strange “visions” would be interpreted as belonging to a "sacred lineage."

Explanations

1.Many researches Others have tried to explain this practice.There are those who think that the cranial deformation was to represent the membership of certain groups or, as we have seen, to demonstrate social status.Migrations would explain the adoption of the practice in different places.

2.Others believe that modifying the skull could be due to the desire to reach certain aesthetic attributes (as in Vanuatu-in the South Pacific), where cranial deformation is still being done, a person with an elongated skull is considered more intelligent and closer to the spiritual world.Or in the Republic of the Congo).

Elongated skulls: an inexplicable custom of the Paracas culture

Two slave girls from Congo, between 1900 and 1915

3.And there are others, such as the researcher of foreign objects and of possible non-terrestrial origin, Lumir Janku , which says that this practice was due to the impulse of imitates r higher extraterrestrial cultures , that would have contacted the human being thousands of years ago in various parts of the planet, and that would explain why in such geographically remote places such a custom exists.

Be that as it may, Cranial deformation does not yet have a sufficiently conclusive explanation, which accommodates the most diverse theories.

Have you heard of this custom? And if you liked the article, don't miss the one we published about the Yanomami, a very curious town.

Images: Didier Descouens, Marcin Tlustochowicz, Evan Bench, Ashley Van Haeften, Robin Fernandes, Trzęsacz

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