Why did some ancient civilizations have elongated skulls?

10/19/2020

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Culture Story: Why did some ancient civilizations have elongated skulls?

Typically one applied some sort of force on the skulls of infants, for instance between two plates of wood, or through binding in cloth.

The results were remarkable.

Elongated skulls have spiked the making of theories about aliens and the like, for pretty obvious reasons. Some controversial studies have appeared, claiming that DNA-research on the famous Paracas skulls points towards completely unknown human-like beings, but those studies have been contested.

Needless to say, the stories frequented on UFO conspiracy websites (since about 2014) but certainly not in proper scientific venues.

Other more religious-oriented minds claimed that the Paracas skulls actually belong to “nephilim” — Biblical creatures that were the offspring of gods and human women, according to Genesis.

Anyway. The real reasons why cranial deformation was performed are not entirely clear, but most probably it signified social status:

One modern theory is cranial deformation was likely performed to signify group affiliation, or to demonstrate social status. Such motivations may have played a key role in Maya society, aimed at creating a skull shape that is aesthetically more pleasing or associated with desirable cultural attributes.

Still, if I understand correctly, it might be true that some of the Paracas skulls that were investigated on the level of DNA really showed a number of (human) abnormalities, so that further scientific investigation would be valuable.

But the alien thesis is easily killed with one single anthropological deathblow, as the culture of cranial deformation is not a unique feature of the Paracas culture at all — it happened throughout the world, and not even that long ago in some places, as the following picture on “Toulouse deformation” from the 19th century indicates.

And I must admit I was pretty surprised when I read about Toulouse, and saw the pictures.

Cheers !

REFERENCES: Google images, Wikipedia and the sites quoted in the body of the text.

Footnotes

This information was taken from Quora. Click here to view the original post.

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What are your thoughts on this subject?

8 Comments

Patty Urban

I don't agree. These skulls have been found every continent (excluding Antarctica) from the same time period. So I doubt folks in Siberia were doing the same thing as folks in Peru. Also, the opening in the skulls that connects to the spinal cord is 1 inch farther back, which cannot be created by making people wear wooden blocks on heads for years.

Cindy Ursan

lmoores, in my extreme youth, we were told that Jesus was the baby of the virgin Mary; some believe this was a miracle, some believe God had sex with her, as in other mythologies where Gods procreated with humans. Think we’ll ever know the truth, or is blind faith better…?

Amy Miller

Nephilim are “fallen angels”. Monsters are supposedly birthed as a result of the mating of angels and humans. The Bible said nothing about gods mating with humans.

Phil Whitley

This is the common rebuttal of the long skulls theorem, and like all good propaganda, it is partly true.Children whose heads have been bound display skull deformation of a certain pattern, on a normal skull, whereas the true elongated skulls are a different type of skull to the normal, having a smaller number of plates that make up the skull, Joints in the plates in different positions, and the spinal column position in the base of the skull is about 2" further towards the back. Regardless of where these skulls are found, There is evidence to show that the children whose skulls were bound and deformed appear later in the historical recordt than the "true" elongated skulls which could indicate that the binding was done to try and claim a heritage from an earlier, presumably ruling or senior, class of persons. dna tests give a result for an origin in central Europe, not another planet! More research is needed!

andrew anna

For what ever reason that is what it was.

Lynda Wild

Watch ancient aliens. Netflix.

ninakamwene

Interesting and still needs more research. Thank you for sharing. Be well.

lmoores

I never read about gods snd women procreating in Genesis. What nonsense.

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