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.