Elongated Skulls: Ancient Species, very distant from human?

This paper from March 2018 is about the genetic analysis in an Early Medieval Bavaria population with artificial cranial deformation. I think that even though researchers don't admit it, it is plausible that some skulls might have been elongated naturally. The entire paper is available on the link below. It seems to suggest that cranial deformation predates the Hunnic invasion and that the elongated skulls likely had brown or blond hair, like the locals, but brown eyes (locals likely having blue eyes).

Population genomic analysis of elongated skulls reveals extensive female-biased immigration in Early Medieval Bavaria

PNAS March 12, 2018. 201719880; published ahead of print March 12, 2018. Population genomic analysis of elongated skulls reveals extensive female-biased immigration in Early Medieval Bavaria

Edited by Eske Willerslev, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark, and approved January 30, 2018 (received for review November 21, 2017)

Many modern European states trace their roots back to a period known as the Migration Period that spans from Late Antiquity to the early Middle Ages. We have conducted the first population-level analysis of people from this era, generating genomic data from 41 graves from archaeological sites in present-day Bavaria in southern Germany mostly dating to around 500 AD. While they are predominantly of northern/central European ancestry, we also find significant evidence for a nonlocal genetic provenance that is highly enriched among resident Early Medieval women, demonstrating artificial skull deformation. We infer that the most likely origin of the majority of these women was southeastern Europe, resolving a debate that has lasted for more than half a century.

Abstract

Modern European genetic structure demonstrates strong correlations with geography, while genetic analysis of prehistoric humans has indicated at least two major waves of immigration from outside the continent during periods of cultural change. However, population-level genome data that could shed light on the demographic processes occurring during the intervening periods have been absent. Therefore, we generated genomic data from 41 individuals dating mostly to the late 5th/early 6th century AD from present-day Bavaria in southern Germany, including 11 whole genomes (mean depth 5.56×). In addition we developed a capture array to sequence neutral regions spanning a total of 5 Mb and 486 functional polymorphic sites to high depth (mean 72×) in all individuals. Our data indicate that while men generally had ancestry that closely resembles modern northern and central Europeans, women exhibit a very high genetic heterogeneity; this includes signals of genetic ancestry ranging from western Europe to East Asia. Particularly striking are women with artificial skull deformations; the analysis of their collective genetic ancestry suggests an origin in southeastern Europe. In addition, functional variants indicate that they also differed in visible characteristics. This example of female-biased migration indicates that complex demographic processes during the Early Medieval period may have contributed in an unexpected way to shape the modern European genetic landscape. Examination of the panel of functional loci also revealed that many alleles associated with recent positive selection were already at modern-like frequencies in European populations ∼1,500 years ago.

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Europe experienced a profound cultural transformation between Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages that laid the foundations of the modern political, social, and religious landscape. During this period, colloquially known as the “Migration Period,” the Roman Empire gradually dissolved, with 5th and 6th century historiographers and contemporary witnesses describing the formation and migration of numerous Germanic peoples, such as the Goths, Alamanni, Gepids, and Longobards. However, the genetic and social composition of groups involved and the exact nature of these “migrations” are unclear and have been a subject of substantial historical and archaeological debate (1).


In the mid 6th century AD, the historiographer Jordanes and the poet and hagiographer Venantius Fortunatus provide the first mention of a group known as the Baiuvarii that resided in modern day Bavaria. It is likely that this group had already started to form in the 5th century AD, and that it emanated from a combination of the romanized local population of the border province of the former Roman Empire and immigrants from north of the Danube (2). While the Baiuvarii are less well known than some other contemporary groups, an interesting archaeological feature in Bavaria from this period is the presence of skeletons with artificially deformed or elongated skulls (Fig. 1A).


Artificial cranial deformation (ACD), which is only possible during early childhood, is a deliberate and permanent shaping of the head performed with great effort. In some societies reshaping the human skull has been seen as an ideal of beauty, while it may also have acted as a marker of status, nobility, or affiliation to a certain class or group (3). While ACD is a worldwide phenomenon that was practiced at least up to the 20th century (4), during the Late Roman and Early Medieval period in Europe it is most popularly associated with the Huns, an ambiguously defined nomadic group thought to have migrated into Europe from Asia (5). However, the earliest evidence for ACD appears in Europe in 2nd century AD burials in present day Romania that predate the proposed Hunnic invasion (6).


Interestingly, there is a striking difference in the practice of ACD in the east and west of the continent: in eastern European burials, ACD is found at much higher frequency [50–80% of skulls in Hungary versus less than 5% in western graveyards] and is equally common among males and females and across all age classes (SI Appendix, Figs. S50–S52). In contrast, in Bavarian burials of the late 5th/early 6th century AD and elsewhere in western Europe, this cultural phenomenon is restricted to mainly adult females, while not noted in children and juveniles (SI Appendix, Fig. S53). Some scholars suggest these patterns are consistent with adult women migrating from eastern Europe or even Asia into western Europe (6). However, the associated assemblages of grave goods for women in the west with ACD cannot be clearly differentiated from non-ACD burials, leading others to argue that the practice was culturally adopted in western Europe from eastern foreign traditions (7).


To examine support for either of these two scenarios we produced genomic data for 36 adults of both sexes from six Bavarian cemeteries located within the former Roman Empire dating around 500 AD (Fig. 1B). All samples were selected with the explicit intent that they would belong to a single generation, and 14 of them demonstrated possible ACD. In addition, we produced genomic data from a local Roman soldier as well as four individuals from further east (including two deformed skulls from the 4th–6th century) that may have acted as a source of origin for people with ACD migrating west.


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A much more diverse ancestry was observed among the females with elongated skulls, as demonstrated by a significantly greater group-based FIS (SI Appendix, Fig. S35). All these females had varying amounts of genetic ancestry found today predominantly in southern European countries [as seen by the varying amounts of ancestry inferred by model-based clustering that is representative of a sample from modern Tuscany, Italy (TSI), Fig. 3], and while the majority of samples were found to be closest to modern southeastern Europeans (Bulgaria and Romania, Fig. 4C), at least one individual, AED_1108, appeared to possess ∼20% East Asian ancestry (Fig. 3), which was also evident from the high number of haplotypes within the 5-Mb neutralome that were private to modern East Asian 1000 Genomes individuals (EAS), while also demonstrating an overall ancestry profile consistent with Central Asian populations (SI Appendix, Fig. S33). No modern European individual from the Simons Genome Diversity Panel (SGDP) (11) showed any evidence of significant East Asian ancestry except one Hungarian individual with less than 5%. A higher amount of East Asian ancestry was inferred for AED_1108 than all modern Caucasus and Middle Eastern individuals, and 28 of 33 South Asian individuals.

From the individuals of intermediate skull size, one female (STR_310) exhibited the same southern European ancestry profile found in most other females with clear skull deformation, while the remaining four clustered clearly within northern/central Europeans (SI Appendix, Fig. S30). In addition, while females with normal skulls generally exhibited the same northern/central European component as the males (excluding STR_300 and STR_502), a small but significant East Asian component was consistently inferred for ALH_3.

A diverse ancestry was also inferred for the two non-Bavarian samples with elongated heads. KER_1 from Ukraine possessed significant southern European ancestry as well as South Asian ancestry, with an overall profile that best matched modern Turkish individuals. The Gepid VIM_2 from Serbia demonstrated a similar Central Asian-like genetic profile to the Medieval Bavarian AED_1108 with an even larger East Asian component and number of private haplotypes but with less southern European/Middle Eastern ancestry (SI Appendix, Figs. S31 and S33). The two Sarmatian individuals (PR_4 and PR_10) fitted a general eastern European/western Asian profile, but also possessed a much larger northern European component [as represented by modern Finnish individuals (FIN)] similar to modern Russians, consistent with their sampling location. As previously observed in Schiffels et al. (12) contemporary Anglo-Saxon samples appeared to be primarily of northern/central European ancestry, with greatest similarity overall to modern British and Scandinavian individuals (SI Appendix, Fig. S32).

A signal of population structure among our ancient samples was also observed when no modern reference samples were used to orientate genomic ancestry. An unsupervised model-based clustering analysis with K = 2 (SI Appendix, Fig. S27) essentially reiterated the results using the supervised analysis that identified individuals with predominantly northern/central versus southern European ancestry, while an outlier analysis identified STR_502, VIM_2, PR_10, KER_1, and AED_1108 as significantly distinct from all of the other samples, consistent with their significant non-European ancestry when orienting them with modern reference populations.

It was also notable that no Bavarian individual (normal or ACD, male or female) possessed ancestry related to southwestern Europe, as represented by a sample of individuals sequenced from the Iberian population in Spain (IBS). This is in contrast to the Roman soldier dating to around 300 AD sampled from the same region, for which its largest ancestry component was IBS, with greatest genetic similarity to modern Spanish and southern French individuals (SI Appendix, Fig. S31). Based on an analysis of patterns of haplotype sharing, the Roman soldier (FN_2: 11.08×) was found to have substantially more southern European, West Asian, and Middle Eastern ancestry than two normal-skulled Early Medieval Bavarians with high genomic coverage (ALH_10: 12.17×, ALH_1: 13.27×) (SI Appendix, Figs. S48 and S49).

Phenotypic Analysis.

Along with the 5-Mb neutralome, we enriched 486 loci (mean 52×, 8×–174×, coverage calculated excluding X/Y chromosomal positions) that have been associated with specific phenotypes (including certain physiological functions) (SI Appendix, section 7), many of which are thought to have changed frequencies in human populations over the last 10,000 y due to adaptation to different environments and changing diet. Based on the HIrisPlex system (13), the majority (∼80%) of individuals with normal or intermediate skulls (and thus northern/central European ancestry) showed high probabilities for blue eyes and blonde hair (SI Appendix, Fig. S7 A and B); in contrast, the majority of women with deformed skulls had a high likelihood for brown eyes (80% of individuals), and both brown and blonde hair (∼60% and 40% of individuals, respectively) were represented in the sample.

When examining the 13910*T allele associated with lactase persistence, the nondeformed group possessed allele frequencies (0.571; 95% CI 0.422–0.721) similar to modern central Europeans, while individuals with deformed skulls exhibited lower frequencies (0.278; 95% CI 0.071–0.485); in this respect, they more closely resemble present-day southern Europeans (14) (SI Appendix, Fig. S7C). We note that even as recently as the Bronze Age this allele was found at less than 10% in Europe (15), providing a fairly narrow window of ∼2,000 y within which the lactase persistence phenotype must have rapidly increased in frequency on the continent.

It has previously been suggested that a network of inflammatory disease-risk alleles was under positive selection in Europeans recently, potentially in response to Yersinia pestis pandemics (16). However, despite our Bavarian population living well before the time of the Black Death and even just before the first recorded instance of bubonic plague, i.e., the Justinian plague in eastern Europe, at all three analyzed loci the allele frequencies of the supposedly protective derived alleles are similar to that in modern European populations (SI Appendix, Fig. S7D and Table S30). The allele frequencies at seven other loci associated with common inflammatory diseases, such as Crohn’s disease, type 1 diabetes, multiple sclerosis, and celiac disease, are also not distinguishable in the Medieval sample from those in modern Europeans, fitting well with Raj et al.’s (16) expectations that allele frequency changes at these loci occurred due to selection more than 5,000 y ago.

Parameterizing Recent European Population Growth.

Multiple population genetic studies have inferred that Europeans have undergone recent explosive population growth of 1–4% per generation (17, 18), with estimates of the start of this growth ranging from 3.5 to 9.5 thousand years ago (kya). In addition, archaeologists have inferred that central Europe has experienced a general trend of population growth starting in the Early Medieval through to modern times (19). In this respect, our sample is chronologically well suited to calibrate the course of European population demography. We estimated an allele frequency spectrum (AFS) for the male and female individuals with normal skull formation (excluding STR_300 and STR_502) at our 5-Mb neutralome and found an excess of singletons, which would be consistent with European growth beginning at least before the age of our ancient population. We used ∂a∂i (20) to fit a two-dimensional AFS (2D-AFS) consisting of our ancient Bavarian population and 492 chromosomes from modern Dutch individuals (21) to a demographic model containing recent exponential growth (22) as well as continuity between the ancient and modern Dutch (GoNL) populations. In addition, we took advantage of the fixed time in years separating the two populations (1.5 ky) to simultaneously estimate the per generation mutation rate, μ, rather than having to convert our parameter estimates into real-world units using an assumed rate. We estimated that growth began 5.9 kya (95% CI 4.4–10.4 kya) with a growth rate of 1.81% (95% CI 1.00–2.36%) and an estimate of μ of 1.14 × 10−8 (95% CI 6.51 × 10−9–1.53 × 10−8), the latter of which is very much in line with recent WGS pedigree estimates (23) as well as another AFS-based estimate (18).

Discussion

Dynamics of Female Mobility.

The most striking result of this study is the genetic difference between Early Medieval individuals buried in Bavaria with and without ACD. While both males and females with normal skulls were found to be a largely homogenous set of individuals with a common northern/central European ancestry (with two exceptions STR_300 and STR_502), females with deformed skulls sampled from the same cemeteries were very genetically diverse, demonstrating a wide range of both modern northern/central and southern/southeastern European ancestry, and even some samples with East Asian ancestry.

If the structure of modern genetic variation can be considered a suitable proxy for how genetic variation was approximately structured in Europe and the rest of Eurasia 1,500 y ago, then local Medieval Bavarian individuals were probably not practicing ACD with their own children. Instead, consistent with the suggestion of Hakenbeck (6), adult females with deformed skulls found in Medieval Bavaria likely migrated from southeastern Europe, a region that not only contains the earliest known European burials of males and females with ACD but also the largest accumulation (SI Appendix, Figs. S51 and S52). It also seems unlikely that mass migration of people from the southeast were involved, as there appears to be no major impact on the local Bavarian gene pool (ACD samples make up only a very small percentage of the local burials). Instead, given that ACD was a particularly involved and labor-intensive procedure that may indicate a certain role or status in Medieval society, these females may have moved as part of a system in which local Bavarian communities practiced exogamy to form strategic alliances with entities to the east.

The diversity of the genomic profile of the immigrant females with ACD suggest two primary models with regard to how, who, and to what extent these central European peoples interacted with people from the east. In the first, local populations in Early Medieval Bavaria may have had direct contacts with an extremely diverse set of people practicing ACD, ranging from southeastern European tribes such as the Gepids to those with probably even more Asian origins that moved into Europe such as Huns, which would explain the presence of East Asian ancestry in AED_1108 and possibly STR_328 and ALH_3. Alternatively, this pool of women may have origins exclusively in southeast Europe and more precisely the middle or lower Danube Basin area, which itself contained a long-standing mixture of people and where the custom of creating elongated skulls arose both locally and from interactions with groups from the east (not only Huns, but also predating Sarmatians and Alans), similar to the model proposed by Molnár et al. (24). The similar Central Asian genomic profiles of AED_1108 from Bavaria and VIM_2 from 6th century Serbia support this second scenario.

While the immigrant females would have been clearly distinguishable physically among the local population based on the combination of their enlarged crania as well as their different eye, hair, and perhaps even skin pigmentation patterns, it is noteworthy that their assemblies of grave goods appear to reflect both local customs and more distant material cultures (10). This not only indicates a potentially significant level of integration of these women into local life, but also cautions against inferring migration from material culture alone.

A Hunnic Spread for Skull Deformation in Europe?

The question arises of whether the observed East Asian ancestry in both our late 5th/early 6th century Bavarian and Serbian samples is consistent with an assumed ultimate Hunnic origin of skull deformation in both eastern and western Europe. Generally, it is assumed that the Huns were a diverse mixture of east European and Central Asian people, and that they integrated men and women from the local populations during their westward expansion (25).

Located ∼1,600 km away from VIM_2 and predating both this sample and AED_1108 by at least a century, our most easterly sampled deformed skull is KER_1 from the Crimea. The age of the sample and its archaeological context associate the skull with the Ostrogoth people but also with the ancient Greek city of Pantikapaion, which it is said was destroyed by the Huns in 370 AD (SI Appendix, section 1). Thus, we might hypothesize an exclusive “Hunnic” origin of skull deformation spreading from the Steppe and into Europe would be reflected in Central/East Asian ancestry in KER_1 similar to AED_1108 and VIM_2. However, KER_1 provided no evidence of such ancestry. Instead, it displays similarities to today’s Mediterranean populations, consistent with this being a Greek trading colony founded in the 6th century BCE. While clearly more samples are needed to support this assessment, the absence of any Central/East Asian ancestry in KER_1 but a significant proportion observed in AED_1108 and VIM_2 is nevertheless surprising and not in line with an exclusive Central/East Asian origin of ACD.

As a further “proxy” for a potential eastern origin of the individuals with ACD, we analyzed Sarmatian-associated genomes from southern Russia (400 BC). While there is some genetic evidence of an East Asian ancestry in these samples, it is limited and much less than that estimated in both AED_1108 and VIM_2. Their largest additional ancestry component is represented by modern Finnish individuals (much of which likely reflects their previously observed Yamnaya-like ancestry) (26), which is very low in all our other ancient samples (normal and deformed skulls). Overall we found no evidence for a higher amount of East Asian-related ancestry in the 10 deformed skull individuals relative to 29 individuals without deformed skulls (Wilcoxon rank-sum test two-sided P value = 0.84). When coupled with archaeological evidence of skull deformation in Romania as early as the 2nd century, it perhaps suggests any Hunnic or earlier Sarmatian-like influence in spreading the tradition of ACD from the Steppe may have been low, and their genetic impact even lower.

Lack of Mediterranean and Gallo-Roman Influence on Medieval Bavarian Genetic Structure.

Excluding individuals with ACD and two women with Greek/Anatolian ancestry, our samples from Early Medieval Bavaria can be genetically characterized as typically northern/central European. It is perhaps surprising that no local individual was found to share recent common genetic ancestry with a Roman soldier living in the same area ∼200 y earlier. The analysis of his genome identifies him to be of southwest European origin. Thus, our results, though only based on one sample, argue against significant admixture between any Roman populations from more southern parts of the former Roman Empire and our individuals buried in Bavaria around 500 AD.

Conclusion

The population genomic analysis of Early Medieval people from cemeteries in the area of modern day Bavaria provide clear evidence of female-biased long-distance migration and consequently more diverse ancestry of women versus men in this specific context. In addition, through our high coverage capture approach, we were able to obtain population-level allele frequencies (and generate an ancient human AFS) that allowed us to (i) establish that many disease-risk alleles previously thought to have emerged relatively recently were already well established in northern/central Europe by around 500 AD, and (ii) that explosive population growth likely began during the Chalcolithic period of central Europe. In general, our results emphasize that, unlike when investigating more ancient prehistoric periods where just a few samples can reveal major events, obtaining dense local samples from across Europe will be essential to better understand the complex patterns of migration, admixture, population structure, growth, and selection during more recent times.
 
It really sounds like men may have been going on wife-stealing expeditions regularly pretty far back in the past!
 
There's a condition called Chiari Malformation and it's recognised that there is a genetic component to it as it can run in families. I'm wondering if it's a throw back to doliocephalic elongated skulls. Earlier studies on Chiari mainly pointed to herniation of the cerebellar tonsils below the foramen magnum and that puts pressure on the brainstem and impedes the flow of cerebral spinal fluid creating a host of symptoms. More recently, the measurements of different structures at the base of the skull have been compared between Chiari patients and the normal population. Some of these measurements are interesting because it seems as though they might match the doliocephalic elongated skulls. For example the posterior fossa (OP - IOP in the image) is smaller than average in Chiari patients and the tentorial angle is steeper. Other measurements that may or may not indicate genetic throw back because there is little to indicate whether they would apply to elongated skulls are smaller than average clivus (DS - B) and larger than average foramen magnum (B - OP)

Chiari1.gif
 
One can see the cranial sutures in several of the skulls. I would speculate that the front fontanel was perhaps much larger than in humans at birth and afterwards, allowing for the expansion of the skull as the brain grows.

Maybe the skull grew sort of line an antena, kind of like not being overburdened by gravitational forces? I can't imagine any skull that big going through a birth canal, unless the woman had one heck of a birth canal.

Anyway, it is weird!!

The question about how such a person could have been born is an interesting one indeed. I was thinking that maybe the skull was rather normal during and after birth (size wise) and then grew much longer afterwards? Maybe some kind of gene thing going on where the skull crew differently or for a longer period after birth, then in normal humans? Something like that might explain how it was possible for the mother to deliver such a child?
 
There is a video in which some of the evidence about the elongated skulls is presented:

The section about the skulls end around minute 33. He interviews one researcher and author, Brien Foerester. It turns a number Paracas skulls in Peru do not have a saggital sutre, as do all other humans. Also while Native Indians have haplogroup A, B, C and D, one of the tested paracas skulls. 4 were haplogroup B others were of the haplogroups U2e, H1a and H2 which are found most common in Europe between the Black and the Caspian seas.

I looked up Brien Foerester and found the original video from where some of the material is borrowed like
There is also a five part video presentation:

Brien Foerester has published several books including the one shown on the video preview
Beyond The Black Sea: The Mysterious Paracas Of Peru
 
Brien Foerster has published a new book called "Aftershock: The Ancient Cataclysm That Erased Human History" and made an interesting video presentation about it here:


From another thread about Klaus Dona in reference to strange elongated skulls that have been discovered:

I would like to see some books with images and references about these giants. I've got some in a few books, but most often, the references are very hard to get, out of print, whatever.

It turns out that Brien Foerster published a lot of other books too, some of which discuss those skulls. At least 29 books as far as I could see! One of which is a french translation, which I won't include below. The books indented in the list below seem to be the same books republished with maybe additional stuff. Here are the books on his website. What follows are all of Briens books I could find, a number of which are partly tourist guides. Most of the books seem to have been updated throughout time, so it could be that there are different versions around. I tried to arrange them to various themes but note that this is just a rough arrangement, to make the list easier to arrange and understand:

Lost Ancient Technology and Megaliths around the world:
Strange Skulls/History:
Historic explorations partly in Tourist guide form with interesting information about history and interesting places and artifacts etc.:
History:
Cataclysm/History:
PS: Table got mixed up; fixed now. Found another book; now 29 books: Included and corrected above.
 
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Brien Foerster has published a new book called "Aftershock: The Ancient Cataclysm That Erased Human History" and made an interesting video presentation about it here:


In the presentation above he mentions 4 books that were partly the material he used for his book [not in order of appearance in the presentation]:

1: He mentions the book "Earth Under Fire: Humanity's Survival of the Ice Age" by Paul A. LaViolette with the header in Foersters presentation "An update with Dr. Paul La Violette: Superwave"

[I found the title of another book by LaViolette interesting too: Subquantum Kinetics: A Sytemic Approach to Physics and Cosmology]

2: Awakening the Planetary Mind: Beyond the Trauma of the Past to a New Era of Creativity by Barbara Hand Clow

3:
Forgotten Civilization: The Role of Solar Outbursts in Our Past and Future by Robert M. Schoch Ph.D.

4: Cataclysm!: Compelling Evidence of a Cosmic Catastrophe in 9500 B.C. by D. S. Allan
 
You can search the sessions for some info about LaViolette. He was Vinnie Bridges' hero.

I've read some of Foerster's work. He relies way too much on badly researched work of others.

That’s good to know since I haven’t read any of Foersters books yet. And also thanks for the info about LaViolette! The name rang a bell but I couldn’t remember which exactly. Now I remember.
 
An interesting article that I could not find on SOTT. The author only mentions binding as the cause of the skull deformation but to me it seems that B picture shows a skull with cranial space bigger than usual, similar to the Peruvian, Carracas pieces.

Mysterious pointy and lengthened skulls discovery sheds new light on strange ancient rituals
FoxNews, August 23rd 2019

The discovery of pointy and lengthened skulls in Croatia is shedding new light on the region’s strange ancient rituals.

Experts studied three skulls excavated from a pit in Osijek, in eastern Croatia, in 2013. The skeletons, which were dated to the 5th and 6th centuries B.C., were found to be the remains of three adolescent males. Experts, however, were intrigued by the unusual shape of two of the skulls.

Their paper on the skulls was published in the journal Plos One.

"We were inspired to study these individuals based on their unusual burial context as well as the identification of two different types of artificial cranial deformation in two of the individuals," said Daniel Fernandes, a postdoctoral fellow at the Department of Evolutionary Anthropology, University of Vienna and one of the two lead authors of the study, in a statement.

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Experts explained that one skull had been “lengthened obliquely” and another had been “compressed and heightened.” The research also revealed that the skeletons came from very different regions.

"Results of ancient DNA analyses indicate that the individual without artificial cranial deformation shows broadly West Eurasian associated-ancestry, the individual with the elongated skull has East Asian ancestry and the third individual has Near Eastern associated-ancestry," said Ron Pinhasi, head of the ancient DNA laboratory at the University of Vienna, who co-directed the study, in the statement.

The three individuals bore evidence of severe malnutrition. Experts say that the deliberate deformation of their skulls may have been a way to distinguish their cultural identities.

"Artificial cranial deformation is a deliberate act performed on infants with the aim to achieve a desired skull shape using boards, pads or specially-made headdresses," explained Kendra Sirak, a postdoctoral fellow Harvard Medical School and the other lead author of the study. Researchers note that the practice was typically used to denote status, nobility, or affiliation to a specific class or group.

The skulls, which date from 415 to 560 B.C., are from an era known as the Great Migration Period when there was great movement and contact across a number of European cultures.

“We propose that the type of artificial cranial deformation may have been a visual indicator of membership in a specific cultural group,” said Mario Novak, a bioarchaeologist at the Institute for Anthropological Research in Zagreb and a senior author of the study, in the statement. The discovery indicates that the different groups were interacting closely in parts of Central and Eastern Europe, he added.

Other projects in Europe are also revealing the secrets of centuries-old burial sites. Archaeologists, for example, are shedding new light on a mysterious medieval skeleton that was discovered buried with a sword, ax and knives at Prague Castle during the 1920s.
 

Elongated skulls found on Vancouver Island, apparently belonging to the Pentlatch people. There are no pictures of the skulls themselves - it appears the remains are being given to the local First Nations for re-burial. But I had no clue that the practice - or the mutation - occurred as far North and as far West as this.
 
Apologies, wrong link. Article is found here.

Elongated skulls found on Vancouver Island, apparently belonging to the Pentlatch people. There are no pictures of the skulls themselves - it appears the remains are being given to the local First Nations for re-burial. But I had no clue that the practice - or the mutation - occurred as far North and as far West as this.
 
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