The pre - Columbian culture of the Americas did very few things in half measures , especially when it come toflamboyant funerary ritualsand gruesome traffic with destruction .
Archaeologists from the University of North Carolina ( UNC ) at Charlotte latterly excavated the skulls of two infants in South America who were buried wearing “ headgear ” fashioned out of human skulls – a singular funerary ritual that ’s never been documented before .
" As far as we lie with , this is the only good example of this practice session anywhere in the public , " Sara Juengst , study generator and adjunct prof of bioarchaeology at UNC Charlotte , told IFLScience .
" [ However ] , admit surplus headland in interment is not so uncommon in pre - hispanic South America , either as trophy heads made from enemy , or as ensuring links to ancestors , " they add .
As account in the journalLatin American Antiquity , the two isolated skull were find in a complex of inhumation mounds in present - day Ecuador dated to some 100 BCE , alongside at least nine other individuals , a routine of seashell , stone figurines , and other small artifact .
One of the babe , estimated to be 6 to 9 months one-time at the time of last , was found with the skull of another old child , age between 2 and 12 , post on top like a helmet . The other skull belonged to a slightly older yearling , around 18 month old , and wore the skull of a child aged between 4 and 12 .
Stranger still , the team also recovered a seashell and a hand os from in between the skull and the skull - hat . They also believe that the two skulls were crafted together while they were still covered in flesh , presumably not long after their death , to hold the os together .
The kinship between the infant and the proprietor of their skull - helmets is currently strange too – were they phratry or perhaps members of a rival chemical group ? – although the researchers hope to stock out DNA and isotope analytic thinking to run this question .
The time and spot intimate the hill were build by the Guangala , a cultivation that thrive on the southwestern coast of Ecuador from 100 BCE for C of years . However , footling is known about the significance behind this bizarre mortuary ritual since nothing like it has been break before .
While the cause of death also remains a secret , it ’s speculated that the children died of malnutrition or malady . This is suspected because the field might have been savage with a significant volcanic eruption at the metre , which could have sprinkle the sky with volcanic ash tree . Perhaps , the research worker ruminate , their pathological helmets were an accoutrement to protect them from further misfortune .
" We suspect that they were doing this in response to some sort of lifelike or social cataclysm and are ensuring that these infants had extra protection or extra links to ancestors through their burials , " explain Juengst .
