Usually, deliberately elongated or compressed skulls are associated with ancient cultures of Central America. But this unique specimen, estimated to be 1,500 years old, was recently found in Alsace, France.
Having surveyed 7.5 acres of land, archaeologists have found a staggering amount of artifacts left over from ancient cultures, as well as the remains of people and animals from the Neolithic, Gallic, Gallo-Roman and Merovingian periods. The finds cover a period of more than 6,000 years.
In a necropolis with 18 burials, the grave of a woman was found, apparently belonging to the upper class and a former very important person at one time.
The practice of tightening the skulls of babies in order to lengthen its shape has been practiced by many peoples. An elongated head was considered a sign of belonging to the elite of society in Asia, Africa and, as already mentioned, America. Burial proves that this custom was also not alien to Europeans.
There was such a practice in Siberia. Thus, when examining craniological materials from the burial grounds of the Dzhetasar archaeological culture of the Eastern Aral Sea region, with a total number of 460 individuals, 6 main variants of the head shape were identified: 1) undeformed; 2) annularly deformed; 3) with frontal-occipital deformity; 4) with occipital deformity; 5) with parietal deformity; 6) and a combined variant of annular and frontal-occipital deformity.
There is also a fairly well-known story about an elongated skull from Omsk. The skull was found relatively long ago. “This exhibit is one of the materials of archaeological excavations conducted by an expedition of the Pedagogical University (at that time - an institute) in the early 1990s, - said Natalya Shadrina, the chief custodian of the funds of the Omsk Museum of Education, - the expedition was led by Igor Skandakov, who is currently the director of the museum."
The expedition was carried out in the vicinity of the village of Ust-Tara, on the territory of a burial mound. As a result of excavations, 8 graves were found there, dating back to about the 5th century AD. Anthropological studies have shown that 7 skeletons belonged to women and one to a man. The youngest of those buried was 20 years old. Not all of the found exhibits are well preserved.
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“One thing can be said with certainty: all the remains have pronounced traces of artificial deformation of the skull,” said Natalya Shadrina, “however, neither cult objects nor any attributes of the ruler were found in the burial. The origin of this burial ground is still a mystery”.
Thus, the practice of deforming the head had a very wide geography. At the same time, a certain pattern can be traced: with all the variety of methods and forms of influence on the shape of the cranium (from tight dressings-caps to special structural wooden devices), the desire to achieve only one result of deformation is clearly dominant - an elongated head.
A completely natural question arises: what are the origins of such a massive (and uniform in all regions!) Striving for an elongated head shape?.. The question is far from idle, given the data of modern medicine that such an effect on the head, in addition to the inconvenience and discomfort caused contributes to recurrent headaches and seriously increases the risk of negative consequences for mental and physical health in general.
The official history does not give any exhaustive answer to this question, attributing everything only to a cult ceremony with an incomprehensible motivation. However, even with all the real power of the influence of religion and cult on the entire way of life of people, it is clearly not enough. There must be a very powerful incentive for such a “fanatical desire for ugliness”. And the incentive is quite stable, considering the ubiquity and duration of this "tradition".
Recently, more and more researchers are leaning towards the neurophysiological version. Changing the shape of the skull also affects various areas of the cerebral cortex, which contributes to the change in certain characteristics and skills of a person. Serious research in this area has not even begun yet. But even without them, among the tribes still practicing deformation of the skull, something has not been noticed any special positive shifts in psychic abilities. And the clergymen (shamans and priests), for whom the ability, for example, to fall into a trance or enter into meditation, is very important, do not at all strive to deform the skull.
An alternative to academic science version was voiced by Daniken - a supporter of the version of the real existence of the ancient "gods" who were representatives of an alien civilization and, quite possibly, had some physiological differences from the representatives of the earthly race. In this version, the gods had an elongated head shape, and people tried to "become like the gods."