During excavations in South Korea, an ancient tomb belonging to the kingdom of Silla was found. The remains of a woman lay in it. Scientists were surprised by the elongated shape of her skull. Therefore, initially the media even dubbed the ancient Korean woman "alien." Now various versions of the origin of the phenomenon are being put forward, according to PLOS One and Live Science.
Woman in a wooden coffin
The kingdom of Silla existed from 57 BC to 935 AD. It was quite powerful and in the 7th century swallowed up two neighboring states: Baekje and Goguryeo. It also played a significant role in the formation of modern Korean culture … Unfortunately, until recently, archaeologists have rarely come across intact burial sites of that era. This is due to the fact that local acidic soils, as well as the alternation of wet and dry seasons, are not very conducive to the preservation of bone remains.
In 2013, during excavations before the construction of a road in the ancient city of Gyeongju (the former capital of Silla), a traditional Korean wooden coffin (mokkuakmyo) was discovered, in which female bones lay.
Since the soil here was marshy, the remains are well preserved, albeit in fragmented form. The Silla culture was indicated by the grave goods - ceramics and a wooden comb …
Expertise results
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The remains were examined for three years. A group of scientists from South Korea and Great Britain worked on this. They established the approximate age of a woman - 35-39 years. By the length of the femur, it was possible to calculate its height - 155 centimeters. Isolation of mitochondrial DNA indicated that it belongs to the F1b1a haplogroup, which is widespread among East Asians and rarely found among modern Koreans.
Analysis of carbon isotopes showed that during her lifetime the lady was a vegetarian. This diet was in line with the Buddhist faith she apparently adhered to. Apparently, the basis of the woman's diet was rice, from which most of the calories entered her body.
The fragments of the skull at the disposal of the researchers made it possible to recreate the facial features of the deceased and even the shape of her head. And here the scientists were in for a surprise: they discovered the presence of dolichocephaly - a phenomenon when the ratio of head width to length is 75.9
percent and below … In other words, the woman's skull was very long and narrow. As a rule, this is not typical for residents of eastern Eurasia.
When information about the discovery was published in the press, there were suggestions that a woman from Ancient Korea could have an extraterrestrial origin, therefore, they say, her head has an elongated shape (the fact that everything else is completely standard does not bother the supporters of the alien version).
A more probable version consists in a deliberate change in the shape of the skull: rituals of artificial head deformation were practiced among many peoples of the world. In particular, the Indian tribes of South and Central America, including the Incas and Mayans, did this. To do this, even in infancy, the child's head was placed in a special wooden vice or laid in a supine position under the press. As a result, the skull acquired an elongated shape and sloped back … Not everyone was subjected to this procedure: a deformed head served as a sign of a special social status or belonging to a particular group. This kind of thing was done for ritual purposes as well.
Mexican find
In late 2012, an expedition from the Mexican National Institute of Anthropology and History, while excavating a pre-Hispanic grave in southern Sonora, came across a strange grave. There was a skull in it, shaped like the head of an alien from the movie "Alien" … The age of the burial, discovered near the village of Onavas, was about a thousand years.
The found skull really had a too elongated and flattened shape in comparison with an ordinary human one. However, a group of Mexican scientists led by Christina Garcia Moreno, as well as their colleagues from the University of Arizona (USA), who also participated in the excavations, believe that it does not belong to an alien at all. In total, archaeologists found 25 skeletons in this place, and 13 of them had skulls clearly deformed by artificial means. 17 skeletons belonged to children and adolescents aged five months to 16 years old, and only eight belonged to adults. Researchers believe that attempts to deform the skull could lead to death at a young age: after all, they had to subject the head to strong pressure …
Was there any deformation?
Similar rituals were carried out on the territory of the Kai confederation, which later became part of the Silla kingdom … However, the hypothesis of intentional ritual deformation in the ancient Korean woman had to be ruled out as well: forcible elongation of the skull leads to flattening of the bones at its base. But this is not the case with the deceased from Silla.
Perhaps the head of an ancient inhabitant of Korea was formed elongated for some natural reason. But what are these reasons, scientists are still at a loss to say.