Mystery burial reveals 2,100-year-old infants wearing ‘skull helmets’ made from bones of OTHER children
BABIES in ancient South America were buried wearing helmets made from human skulls, according to a new study.
Archaeologists found two examples of the gruesome funerary practice at a mysterious site dating back 2,100 years.
They suggest the technique was a way to protect the children's "pre-social and wild souls" on their way to the afterlife.
The burials may have also been part of a ritual response to an apocalyptic volcanic eruption that struck the area at the time.
Researchers found the remains among 11 burials at the Salango archaeological site in central Ecuador, Live Science .
Dating to around 100 BC, the ritual complex on the country's Pacific coast was used as a funerary platform by a group called the Guangala.
"The human head was a potent symbol for many South American cultures," researchers wrote in their study.
"Isolated heads were often included in mortuary contexts, representing captured enemies, revered persons, and symbolic 'seeds'."
The team from the University of North Carolina, Charlotte, found the remains of 11 people crammed into two burial mounds at the site.
Helmets made from the skulls of other children were placed on two of the infants, most likely after they had died.
"Among 11 identified burials, two infants were interred with 'helmets' made from the cranial vaults of other juveniles," researchers wrote.
"The additional crania were placed around the heads of the primary burials, likely at the time of burial."
According to the team, the helmets were placed tightly over the infants' heads.
They made the grisly prediction that the severed skulls still had flesh on them when they were turned into headgear.
That's because without flesh the helmets would not have stayed together due to the forces exerted on them.
Scientists said they planned to carry out DNA tests to determine who the remains belonged to.
They added that the practice "may represent an attempt to ensure the protection of these 'presocial and wild' souls'."
Stone figurines depicting the children's ancestors were found nearby. Their presence indicated a "concern with protecting and further empowering the heads," the archaeologists wrote.
Strange UK burials sites
Here are some of the weirdest...
Leicester car park: King Richard III's remains
- In 2012, King Richard III's skeleton was famously found under a Leicester car park.
- The corpse had a metal arrow in its back and severe trauma to its skull.
- The following February, lead archaeologist Richard Buckley, of the University of Leicester, said tests proved the remains were the king’s “beyond reasonable doubt”.
- Richard was killed in the Battle of Bosworth Field in 1485.
- His demise was dramatised by Shakespeare, who had the monarch calling out “a horse, a horse, my kingdom for a horse” before he died on battlefield.
Dartmoor: Grave of 'Bronze Age princess'
- Its beautiful moor attracts hundreds of thousands of visitors every year, but in 2011, remains thought to belong to a Bronze Age princess were discovered on Dartmoor.
- The bones - thought to date back over 4,000 years - were found in a peat bog on White Horse Hill alongside a number of remarkable items, including around 150 beads, an animal pelt, a delicate bracelet and a woven bag.
- The picturesque National Park's archaeologists were stunned to uncover the grave, which was described at the time as one of the most significant historical finds ever at the site.
- It is speculated that the grave was that of a young, royal woman.
Rare Oxfordshire stream: 26 human skeletons
- A beautiful stream in Oxfordshire might look like an unlikely place to find 26 human skeletons - but that's what happened recently near the precious Letcombe Brook.
- The skeletons, believed to be from the Iron Age and Roman periods, were discovered during a £14.5 million Thames Water project to ease pressure on the rare chalk stream.
- Archaeologists believe some may have been victims of ritual human sacrifice.
- The skeletons are thought to be about 3,000 years old.
- Evidence of dwellings, animal carcasses and household items, including pottery, cutting implements and a decorative comb, were also unearthed.
- Cotswold Archaeology removed the items for forensic examination, which meant Thames Water could start laying the six-kilometre pipe.
Previous research suggested a volcanic eruption occurred in the region around 100 BC.
The devastating event would have wiped out food production. Several of the children showed signs of malnutrition.
It's possible that "the treatment of the two infants was part of a larger, complex ritual response to environmental consequences of the eruption," experts wrote.
The research was published in the journal .
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In other archaeology news, this fossil hunter has found pieces of Jurassic history encased in golden-snitch-like spheres.
Hitler's secret vegetable garden was uncovered near his Poland bunker headquarters last week.
And, the face of a 1,000-year-old Viking warrior woman with a gruesome battle wound across her skull was revealed earlier this month.
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