king
Khingila, from his coinage, Intentional cranial deformation predates
written history; it was practiced commonly in a number of cultures that are widely separated geographically and chronologically, and still occurs today in a few areas, including
Vanuatu. The earliest suggested examples were once thought to include Neanderthals and the Proto-
Neolithic Homo sapiens component (9th millennium BCE) from
Shanidar Cave in
Iraq. The view that the Neanderthal skull was artificially deformed was common for a period. However, later research by Chech, Grove, Thorne, and Trinkaus, based on new cranial reconstructions in 1999, questioned the earlier findings and concluded: "we no longer consider that artificial cranial deformation can be inferred for the specimen". It is thought elongated skulls found among Neolithic peoples in Southwest Asia were the result of artificial cranial deformation. The earliest written record of cranial deformation comes from
Hippocrates in about 400 BCE. He described a group known as the
Macrocephali or Long-heads, who were named for their practice of cranial modification.
Eurasia , depicted in this 7th-century CE mural at
Panjikent,
Sogdia, with an elongated skull in the fashion of the
Alchon Huns. In the
Old World, the practice of cranial deformation was brought to
Bactria and
Sogdiana by the
Yuezhi, a tribe that created the
Kushan Empire. Men with such skulls are depicted in various surviving sculptures and friezes of that time, such as the Kushan prince of
Khalchayan. .
Alchon kings are generally recognized by their elongated skulls, a result of artificial skull deformation. Archaeologist Cameron Petrie wrote that "The depictions of elongated heads suggest that the Alchon kings engaged in skull modification, which was also practised by the Hun groups that appeared in Europe." The elongated skulls appear clearly in most portraits of rulers in the coinage of the Alchon Huns, and most visibly on the coinage of
Khingila. In the
Pontic steppe and the rest of Europe the
Huns, including the
Proto-Bulgarians, are also known to have practiced similar cranial deformation, as were the
Alans. In
Late Antiquity (300–600 CE), the
East Germanic tribes who were ruled by the Huns—the
Gepids,
Ostrogoths,
Heruli,
Rugii, and
Burgundians—adopted this custom. Among the
Lombards, the Burgundians, and the
Thuringians, this custom seems to have comprised women only. In western Germanic tribes, artificial skull deformations have rarely been found. File:Elongated skull Hungarian national Museum 3.jpg|Female skull found in Mozs, Hungary, c. 5th century File:0511 Turmschädel Württembergisches Landesmuseum Stuttgart anagoria.JPG|Elongated skull, early 6th-century
Alemannic culture,
Landesmuseum Württemberg File:Afrosiab, Deformed skulls 600-800 CE.jpg|Elongated skulls from
Afrasiab,
Samarkand,
Sogdia, 600–800 CE Elongated skulls of three women have been discovered among
Viking-era burials during the eleventh century at
Gotland, Sweden. Researchers have interpreted them as perhaps belonging to women who were not native to the island in a culture characterized as one having extensive trading relationships. The custom of binding babies' heads in Europe in the twentieth century, though dying out at the time, was still extant in France, and also found in pockets in
western Russia, the
Caucasus, and in
Scandinavia among the
Sámi. The reasons for the shaping of the head varied over time, from aesthetic to pseudoscientific ideas about the brain's ability to hold certain types of thought depending on its shape. Rather than being intentionally produced as with some earlier European cultures, Toulousian deformations seemed to have been the unwanted result of an ancient medical practice among the French peasantry known as
bandeau, in which a baby's head was tightly wrapped and padded to protect it from impact and accident shortly after birth. In fact, many of the early modern observers of the deformation were recorded as pitying these peasant children, whom they believed to have been lowered in intelligence due to the persistence of old European customs.
Inca, and certain tribes of
North American natives performed the custom. In North America, the practice was known, especially among the
Chinookan tribes of the Northwest and the
Choctaw of the Southeast. The
Bitterroot Salish, (also known as
Flathead Indians) were widely believed to have engaged in this practice. The Salish themselves believe that this misconception was born because their identifying sign in the
Coast Salish Sign Language involved pressing both hands to opposite sides of their heads. Other tribes, including both Southeastern tribes like the Choctaw and Northwestern tribes like the
Chehalis and
Nooksack Indians, practiced head flattening by strapping the infant's head to a
cradleboard. The practice of cranial deformation was also practiced by the
Lucayan people of the
Bahamas and the
Taínos of the Caribbean. File:Déformation Péruvienne MHNT Noir.jpg|
Proto Nazca elongated skull, File:Gulf Coast Classic Period Elongated Skull Deformed for Beauty.jpg|An elongated female human skull in Olmec and Gulf Coast Gallery, in the
National Museum of Anthropology (Mexico) File:Tiwanaku Deformed Skull in the Horniman Museum.jpg|Tiwanaku skull from Bolivia, on display in the
Horniman Museum, London
Austronesia flattened skulls () from the Butuan
National Museum,
Philippines The
Visayans and the
Bikolano people of the central islands of the
Philippines practiced flattening the foreheads (and sometimes the back of the heads) widely in the pre-colonial period, particularly in the islands of
Samar and
Tablas. Other regions where remains with artificial cranial deformations have been found include
Albay,
Butuan,
Marinduque,
Cebu,
Bohol,
Surigao, and
Davao. The pre-colonial
standard of beauty among these groups were of broad faces and receding foreheads, with the ideal skull dimensions being of equal length and width. The devices used to achieve this include a comb-like set of thin rods known as , plates or tablets called , or padded boards called . These were bound to a baby's forehead with bandages and fastened at the back. Other
body modification practices associated with Philippine artificial cranial deformation include
blackened and
filed teeth, extensive tattooing (
batok, which was also a mark of status and beauty),
genital piercings,
circumcision, and
ear plugs. Similar practices have also been documented among the
Melanau of
Sarawak, the
Minahasans of
Sulawesi, and some non-Islamized groups in
Sumatra. It was also practiced at least into the 1930s on the island of
New Britain in the
Bismarck Archipelago of
Papua New Guinea.
Africa In Africa, the
Mangbetu elongated their heads. Traditionally, babies' heads were wrapped tightly with cloth, called "Limpombo", in order to give them this distinctive appearance. The practice began dying out in the 1950s.
Japan On the southern Japanese island of
Tanegashima, from the third century to the seventh century, a group may have bound the skulls of babies to flatten the back of the skull, possibly as an expression of group identity to facilitate the trade of shell goods.
China Cranial deformation was also practiced in the
Neolithic period at the Houtaomuga Site in
Northeast China. Most had fronto-occipital modification, but there were other types of modification discovered as well. It was found that the practice had been practiced for thousands of years, some skulls being much older than others. ==Methods and types==