skull

They found a cube-shaped skull in Tamaulipas and thought it was a migrant. Science has turned history upside down

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Modern archeology has just thrown us one of those pieces of the puzzle that forces us to rewrite, in part, what we knew about different ancient cultures of northern Mesoamerica. Something obligatory, since a team from the National Institute of Anthropology and History has identified a find in Tamaulipas that is as unusual as it is fascinating: a skull with an intentional deformation in the shape of a “cube”. “Parallelepiped” deformation. The discovery took place in the archaeological zone of Balcón de Montezuma, in the Sierra Madre Oriental. As detailed in the official INAH bulletinthe remains belong to an adult man over forty years old who lived during the Classic period between 400 and 900 AD Although the most surprising thing may seem given the curious deformation of the skull, for anthropologists the real news was in a modification of the “erect tabular” type. in its “parallelepiped” variant. How did it come to this? To have a skull with this peculiar shape, it is suggested that the ancient settlers of that area had to use wood compression devices such as slats. These would be applied to the back of the head (the occipital bone) and the forehead to restrict the natural growth of bones from childhood. Because it is precisely when they are malleable to adjust them to what you were looking for. Who was it? This is where hypotheses begin to emerge. Anthropologists point out that this type of deformation is more typical of the Mesoamerican southeast. But these bones have been found in the northern area. So the question was clear: Was this man a foreigner who came to the north? The answer, thanks to the analyzes of strontium isotopesit’s a resounding no. The conclusion that has been reached is that the bones belonged to a local man who was born and raised in the Sierra Madre Occidental area. And this is something that changes the narrative completely: we are not facing a migrant, but rather evidence of cultural adoption. Because. The fact that a local inhabitant decided (or his parents decided for him when they were very young) that the skull had to be modified with a technique that involved two splints makes sense. The hypotheses initially point to the membership in a local eliteand this modification could be a distinctive sign to indicate that they were in a higher stratum than the rest of the inhabitants. But it is also something that can suggest a cultural connection, since there was a great flow of ideas and aesthetic fashions that was much more fluid than previously thought between different cities in the area. That is why it may be that having a skull like this was an indication of beauty or it was simply ‘viral’ at that time. Its importance. Until now, archeology had recorded cranial deformations in the area, but they were generally more inclined backwards. The appearance of this more elongated upward shape is something that had not been recorded before in this area. This is something that a priori will help discard the old idea that the northern areas were culturally isolated. On the contrary, this “cubic skull” is physical proof that the northern border of Mesoamerica was fully integrated into the ritual and aesthetic dynamics of the rest of the subcontinent. Images | Chelms Varthoumlien In Xataka | If Spain believes it has a problem with droughts, it is because it does not know what led the Mayans to collapse: 150 extreme years

Who should host Pope Luna’s skull

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In life Pedro de Luna y Gotor (1328-1423), Aka Benedict XIII, Aka Pope Luna, was a figure as fascinating as controversial. However attracted that it was his life (and it was) what probably never imagined the famous “Antipapa” Aragonese is that with the passing of the centuries his skull would end up starring in a worthy story of a Thriller of Dan Brown and facing two villages that have been throwing in A legal pulse to clarify who deserves to host the relic. Now that story writes a new chapter. What happened? That incredible as it may seem, Pope Luna, a character who died more than 600 years ago, is starring in a heated legal dispute Between two Aragonese villas: Illueca and Sabiñán. The two locations are separated for 15 minutes by car and together do not reach 3,500 neighbors, but when it comes to Pope Luna they maintain two postures in an irreconcilable appearance: both claim to be the place of legitimate rest of the remains of the “antipapa”. Why is it news? The lawsuit between Illueca and sabiñán on account of Pope Luna’s skull, which is the little that is preserved from his body, is nothing new. Both locations They have been Battleing to clarify which of the two you have the most right to be the resting place of the skull, something that already led to the fact that in 2023 To the Superior Court of Justice of Aragon was pronounced in favor of the Consistory of Sabiñán. The novelty, like He has just revealed The Aragon newspaperIt is that the Illueca City Council does not seem willing to give up and has hired a lawyer to reopen the process. To achieve this, it proposes to submit a new demand, something that, as the regional newspaper progresses, will happen In September. What do you argue? What he resolved does plus two years Aragonese justice is that Pope Luna’s relic belongs to the Sabiñán City Council. Now Illueca focuses on his claim from another angle and argues that the key is not in whom he is the legal owner of the remains, but what was the original will of the “antipapa”. “We are not going to instigate the judge to say who is the owner of the skull, but to say who can better fulfill the will of Pope Luna’s descendants,” Comment to The newspaper Jorge Español, the lawyer signed by Illueca. It is not the first case on heritage that reaches your office. Spanish already became famous for defend to the City of Sijena in front of the Generalitat. And where does the dispute come from? To solve that question before, you have to know the peculiar (and attributed) history of the bones of Pope Luna. After his death in 1423, in Peñíscola, his nephew claimed the body and transferred it to the Castle Palacio de Illueca, the same town where the “Antipapa” was born in 1328. There, in his native villa, the bones of the controversial Pope Luna remained the following centuries until at the beginning of the XVIII ended up desecrated. It is said that Between 1701 and 1707 The French troops that supported Felipe V in the war of succession took the remains of his grave and that from the evil bones of Pope Luna only the skull was recovered, a skull fragment that moved to the Argillo Palacein Sabiñán. There it rested as many centuries until with the arrival of the 21st century the skull again starred in another truculent chapter. What happened? That in April 2000 someone stole the relic. The skull was guarded in a wooden urn located inside a chapel, but that did not prevent this spring for more than 25 years ago for two young people to loot it. The skull ended up hidden in a booth while the looters tried that the mayor of Illueca pay them a rescue of one million pesetas. The news of the robbery went around the world, but did not last too long. Months later the police recovered what was left of the head of the “antipapa”. To confirm that those bones were effectively those of the deceased Pedro de Luna underwent an exhaustive exam that included carbon dating 14 and a digital exam. The results were favorable and after years of analysis (and a trip to Florida through) the relic moved to the Provincial Museum of Zaragoza. In 2021 He returned to Sabiñán already with the label of good of cultural interest (BIC). To guard the remains It was conditioned The Chapel of Santa Ana of the Church of San Pedro Apóstol. And what is the situation now? It depends on whoever is asked. A few years ago justice confirmed that the relic is owned by the City of Sabiñán since He received it of the Olazábal-Bordiu, the family of the Palacio de Argillo. The truth is that this was the town where the remains of the “antipapa” rested between the 18th century and the theft of 2000. But Illueca sees things differently. Your lawyer remember that to understand the history of the relic well, it does not come with the 18th. It is time to go much further, to the fifteenth century, when the Aragon crown authorizes the transfer of the body to Illueca at the request of the Pope’s nephew, which, the town maintains, gives a track of what the desire of the relatives was. Why is it important? That the skull of Pope Luna is generating such a stir and in front of two neighboring villas is not explained only by its patrimonial value or as Bic heritage. The key is who was the protagonist of the story and the enormous fascination that continues to generate more than six centuries after his death: Pedro de Luna y Gotor, also known as Benedict XIII or Pope Luna, was one of the great figures of the end of the Middle Ages. He was proclaimed high pontiff in Aviñón, in 1394, … Read more

We have found a skull from 6,200 years ago cone and signs of violence. The big question is what I was doing there

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The last cry in bodily modifications is the Implementation of chips under the skin to become One more element of home automation Domestic But we have millennia modifying our aesthetics In a little invasive way, such as The Ötzi tattoos With more than 5,000 years, or in more aggressive ways, such as Padaung They push their clavicles. What they have found in a cemetery near Iran goes much further: a skull from 6,200 years belonging to a woman with a cone -shaped head. And the thing didn’t end well. Chega Sofla. In the western zone of Iran is the site of Chega Sofla. Researchers have been investigating the site for years and Nonantring bodiessince there are dozens of tombs in which they have been found from individual burials to burials of complete families. Some of the human remains They show that, in life, certain people had a more stretched skull than normal not by any kind of natural deformation, but by aesthetics. And, among all, the one who has called the attention of archaeologists is one of those skulls that shows signs of a brutal blow that ended his life. And beyond how, the interesting thing is why and what that young woman did. Cone head. Called as BG1.12, the life of this woman ended when she gave (or led to her) a Strong blow to the head. Before that, it must have been one more because this cranial modification was quite common. What were done in many ancient civilizations was to wrap the infant’s head with bandages that were squeezing as they grew. Like a splint. This practice, extended until adulthood, prevented the skull from developing in a normal way, resulting in a more elongated, cone -shaped skull. And, although it was a normal practice that was given more in girls than in boys, we now know that it was not a good idea. Dangerous. The striking of the wound of BG1.12 led archaeologists to investigate On the cranial development that these people had, discovering that, due to those tight bandages, both the bones and the Diploe (which is a more spongy bone layer that is between two more compact layers in the skull, as if it were a “shock absorber”) were much thinner than those of a typical skull. This is drawer, but explain that it is something that prevents the skull from exercising its optimal brain protection work. Due to that thinness, before external forces, the “brain shield”It is less effective. At some point in the twenties of that woman, something managed to fracture that weak cranial layer, ending her life. The researchers, in statements to Livesciencethey claim that the blow would also have ended with a person who had a normal skull and who do not know if he received an attack or hit himself. What is known is that it was buried in a common grave next to people with both normal and modified skulls. The skull of BG1.12 that shows the wound The role of women. To affirm that the person would have died even with a normally developed skull, he takes away a lot of mystery to history, but the big question is what role people with modified skulls played in that society. We have found modified skulls in European womenin Japan and in Mesoamerica and reasons that are considered They range from Demonstration of status until the search for differentiation of nearby villages or the approach to the image they had of their divinities. Strictly motifs are also considered Aesthetics. The mystery of BG1.12 is that it was buried in the same pit as other people with both normal and modified skull and, as all the ‘stuck’ skeletons are, it is difficult to identify all individuals and know what role in society played these people with the deformed skull 6,000 years ago. And, above all, the moral is that this aggressive modification does not suit. A silly blow to the head, a diploe that does not act as it should … and goodbye. And put your head in a particle accelerator, if you ever have the opportunity, Nor is it a good idea. Images | Cambridge In Xataka | A cave has revealed the macabre Mayan ceremony to honor its gods: there are 100 bones and none is where it should

In 1958 we found a skull with 300,000 years in China. The problem is that we do not know what “homo” belongs

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It all started a 1958 day when some peasants from the province of Guangdong in China were collecting guano of bat in a cave and noticed something unusual: bone remains that looked like a human skull. They warned local researchers, who cataloged the piece and baptized it with the name of the nearest people, Mabaand the number ‘1’. When did this be live? At some point in the period between 130,000 and 300,000 years ago, and the big question to answer was to what extent It was our ancestor. A recent study already has the answer. More or less. The ‘Chinese Neanderthal’. You will be wondering how such an extremely open temporal fan is handled, and the answer is that it is complex to perform a more precise dating due to complexity of both the site in which it was found and the features of Maba 1. At first, the specimen was nicknamed as’ the Chinese Neanderthal‘Due to cranial similarities with that species, but other studies have dismantled that hypothesis, bringing it closer to homo. It does not fit. But there was still a problem: facial similarities and microtomography analysis rule out that it was a neanderthal, yes, but it is not fully fits with a Homo erectus or with the Homo sapiens. Either with those Denisovanosand the problem is that it can be many things. Facial features, such as nasal prominence, brings Maba 1 to Neanderthals, but the neurocranium It has similarities with Homo Heidelbergensis and Homo Erectus. However, the cranial volume is comparable to that of modern humans and everything adds to a set that is very different from other Chinese fossils of the Pleistocene. Summary: We have no idea. Seeking to learn more about him, the authors of A new study carried out by researchers from the Institute of Paleontology and Paleantropology of Vertebrates of the Chinese Academy of Sciences analyzed the cranial cavity, the diplus vessels and the rest of the internal structures of the skull. Using the technique of tomography, researchers discovered that MABA 1 does not belong to a single class: it belongs to many. And the truth is that it is not so strange to find hominids of this period that they do not fit completely into established categories. No, it is not a “lost link”, at least not in the most colloquial sense, but it seems to be an individual belonging to those cases than They blur the limits between different species human 3D reconstruction of the skull for study But it teaches us something. This whole case reminds me of the episode of ‘The Simpsons‘In which Lisa finds the skeleton of an’ angel ‘and takes a piece to the local archaeologist to investigate it. After the evidence (which we later knew he did not make), his conclusion was that the results were not conclusive. With Maba 1 something similar happens, but it does leave us an important lesson. The researchers comment that “the internal structures of MABA 1 show a combination of morphological characteristics found in several species. And these findings further evidenced the high morphological variability among Asian hominids in the middle pleistocene.” In fact, Maba 1 is a perfect example of that complexity in the human evolution that we commented, since the mixture of features reminds other contemporary fossils found … in Africa. Researchers are clear that “currently, it cannot be definitively classified in any known hominid taxon”, but also that it remains a key fossil to understand the diversity of the hominids of the Middle Pleistocene in Asia. At the moment, it is not a Neanderthal and, now, we also know that it is a “no erectus.” We will see what happens in future investigations, but Maba 1 is not unique. Images | Ryan Somma, Mankuen In Xataka | The “ghost species” with which our ancestors were settled and disappeared without (almost) leave a trace

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