Hi guys, today I want to discuss the Elongated Skulls found in northeast China. These skulls
were intentionally stretched to elongated shapes. Carbon dating proves that the oldest
skull is 12,000 years old, which means it’s the earliest discovery of intentional cranial
modification on the Eurasian continent. This site is called Houtaomuga. Even though it
sounds like a very peculiar practice, artificial cranial deformation was surprisingly common
in ancient times. Archaeologists have found these types of human skulls all over the world,
in every inhabited continent. Why did different ancient cultures all choose to do this specific
head binding practice? Where did they get the idea? What was their motivation? Could
this strange practice come from the same source? If so, where did it originate?
Let’s first take a look at the Houtaomuga site. It is located on the southwestern edge
of the Amur River basin. This site is a treasure trove, containing layers of Neolithic burials
and artifacts dated from 12,000 to 5,000 years ago. During excavation, archaeologists found
remains of 25 individuals. After putting these skulls in a CAT scanner, the researchers confirmed
that 11 had indisputable signs of skull shaping, such as flattening and elongating the forehead.
These 11 elongated skulls belonged to both males and females ranging from toddlers to
adults. The oldest skull was an adult male who lived about 12,000 years ago and the latest
one dates to 5,000 years ago. This means the head binding tradition lasted for an astonishing
7,000 years.
DNA samples have been collected and analyzed. The 12,000-year old male with the elongated
head is numbered M45. His maternal DNA is D4h1. D4h1 is found in North Asians, American
Indians and Central Asians. A 2020 paper points out that Houtaomuga people as Paleo-Siberians
might have attributed to the first American lineage in Asia and America.
Houtaomuga’s elongated skulls are not unique in the Amur River basin. Another elongated
skull was pulled out from the bottom of Songhua River, the longest tributary of the Amur.
This skull was carbon dated around 11,000 years old and shows obvious signs of artificial
deformation.
The head shape can only be changed on a baby when the skull is soft and malleable. This
means these ancient people were sophisticated enough to artificially modify the head shapes
of newborns. Even though some elongated skulls seem pretty extreme, studies have proven such
a practice would not have caused neurological impairment.
At Houtaomuga, this carefully performed head binding custom was just used on certain people.
Archeologists discovered that individuals with elongated skulls were buried with more
funereal offerings like shell decorations. Young children were treated with funeral offerings,
which might suggest a high socioeconomic class. This leads to the theory that head reshaping
was a ritual associated with privilege social status and wealth.
Historians believe that artificial cranial deformation existed long before recorded history.
It was often identified with the ruling or elite classes. Many cultures have intentionally
deformed the skulls of babies in order to achieve an elongated shape. Multiple steppe
cultures practiced cranial deformation, such as the Huns and the Alans over 1,500 years
ago. Researchers think head-binding was also common during the eras of Akhenaten and Tutankhamun
in Egypt. Examples of cranial deformation have been
uncovered in the Middle East, Europe, Central Asia, Australia and the Americas from ancient
times, as well as Oceanic and African tribes in modern times. This means the head binding
tradition lasted for at least 12,000 years. The scope of this practice is incredible.
This could be the longest running tradition in modern human history.
The earliest written language is Sumerian’s cuneiform, which emerged over 5,000 years
ago. This means people practiced the head binding custom for at least 7,000 years without
the help of written records. It’s possible that this practice had an even longer history.
Maybe older elongated skulls will be found in the future.
So, only the elite class performed this kind of cranial modification to visually set themselves
apart from the rest of their people. Why did all these different communities have similar
traditions of binding babies’ heads to a distinctive cone-shape or elongated shape?
Did they come up with the idea independently or did this custom originate from the same
region? In order to study this, I think it would be helpful to review some of the oldest
elongated skulls to see if they have any connection.
Besides Houtaomuga, there are a few regions, which also had very early head binding histories:
Middle East, Australia and South America. Let’s check them out.
Middle East Archaeologists have known that people throughout
Mesopotamia had the tradition to change their children’s heads to elongated shapes. Scholars
claimed “Artificial cranial deformation was common in the Near East during the Neolithic
and Chalcolithic” times with examples dating back 11,000 years”. Elongated skulls have
been found at sites all over Iraq, southwestern Iran, Jordan, Lebanon, Palestine, eastern
Turkey, the valleys of the Zagros Mountains, and the western shores of the Persian Gulf,
dated from 7500 BC to about 4000 BC. This was a wide spread phenomenon in the ancient
Middle East and could be proof of community interactions in prehistory times.
Australia Some of the earliest elongated skulls have
been found in Australia, at Kow Swamp, Nacurrie and Coobool Creek. Some date to 11-12,000
years ago. The scientists have confirmed that these skulls had gone through artificial deformation.
Analysis of Mitochondrial DNA and Y chromosome variation in Aboriginal Australians and Melanesians
confirmed that all Australian lineages fall within the mitochondrial branches M and N,
and the Y chromosomal founders C and F. These are all enormous haplogroups that are found
in ancient populations on every continent except Africa. A haplogroup is a group of
people who share a common paternal or maternal ancestor. Each haplogroup describes individual
branches - or closely related groups of branches - on the genetic family tree of all humans.
South America The degree of deformation in some Houtaumuga
individuals is extreme, and very close to the famous Peruvian elongated skulls. For
those following Brien Foerster, we are familiar with the Peruvian elongated skills.
The earliest examples of intentionally deformed skulls in South America were found in Peru
and date between 7000 and 6000 BC. Argentina and Chile also unearthed many skulls that
present signs of artificial cranial deformation, with the oldest ones dated 8,000 years ago
from the Argentinean Pampas. Later in the Americas, the Maya, Inca, and
certain tribes of North American Indians all used this custom.
So about 11-12,000 years ago, people from Middle East, Australia and Northeast China
all performed cranial modification. 2,000 years after, people in South America also
started this tradition. Could it be that the ancient Americans inherited
the head binding idea from somewhere else?
A few present-day populations in the Amazon appear to have additional ancestry from a
mysterious group called Population Y. Population Y is a proposed 'ghost population' who may
have inhabited South America 16,000 years ago. Unlike most Native Americans whose ancestors
came from Siberia, Population Y was more closely related to Australian Aborigines and Melanesians
in New Guinea. In 2019, there was a surprising discovery
of the oldest DNA in North America from a Native American in Montana. Darrell "Dusty"
Crawford is a member of the Blackfeet tribe. After getting his DNA tested, he learned that
his ancestors were already in the Americas about 17,000 years ago. According to a preliminary
analysis of his DNA, Crawford's ancestors are from the Pacific Islands. They journeyed
to the South American coast and traveled north. This is further evidence proving ancient humans
migrated across the vast Pacific Ocean and landed in South America 17,000 years ago.
This is extraordinary. How did ancient people manage to do that? Let’s picture what the
world looked like 16-17,000 years ago. It was during the Oldest Dryas period, when the
global temperature was almost as low as the Last Glacial Maximum. Many places in the northern
hemisphere were covered with thick ice sheets. As a result, the sea level was much lower,
probably about 110-120m lower than today, close to Last Glacial Maximum. At that time
New Guinea was connected with Australia. All of the pacific islands were much larger and
some now submerged islands were above sea level. On this Pacific Ocean floor map, we
can see a group of islands form a dotted line leading a path from Australia to South America,
to be more specific, Peru. When the sea level was 120m lower 17,000 years ago, it would
be more conducive for such an oceanic journey to happen. Ancient people could have used
these islands as transferring and recharging stops. Between 12,900 to 11,700 years ago
is another global cooling event, the Younger Dryas, which caused lowered sea levels; hence
it’s possible that another wave of people migrated to South America during that period
of time. Considering that a string of pacific islands leading to Peru, ancient Australians
and some modern pacific islanders had and have the tradition of head binding, it's not
a leap of faith to propose that ancient Oceania voyagers brought their head binding tradition
to South America and later Meso and North America. Remember the 12,000 year-old man
at Houtaomuga? His maternal DNA is found in North Eurasians and American Indians. It’s
a known fact that ancient north Eurasians migrated through Beringia to North America
over 10,000 years ago. Therefore it’s possible that ancient Eurasians, such as Houtaomuga
people also migrated to North America along with the head binding tradition.
Then what about the three regions with the oldest cranial deformation skulls? Northeast
China, Middle East and Australia are all very far apart. Did people living in these places
come up with the head binding ideas independently with no shared histories? Did each populace
decide on their own that tall, elongated head shapes are indicators of high social class;
thus each started to wrap babies’ heads to the same specific cone shape? What are
the odds of such a phenomenon springing up like this all over the planet with no connection
or common stimulus? I think highly unlikely; unless they were all inspired by some similar
encounters, perhaps from an extraterrestrial source. However, here I’m only going to
discuss earthly reasoning.
I think the elongated skull tradition could be comparable to the modern human development
theory; where instead of evolving in different pockets around the globe simultaneously and
independently; modern human ancestors had migrated out of Africa then populated the
world. What I’m considering is that a group of ancient people in one area came up with
the idea of head binding and then brought the custom with them when they migrated to
other parts of the world. The widely spread cranial deformation practice could have very
well originated from a single region.
If this is the case, then where did this all begin? Probably among the three places that
have the oldest man-made elongated skulls: Middle East, Northeast China and Australia.
Also, the place of origin must have been an important hub in ancient times, since people
migrated from there to the other two places as early as 12,000 years ago. For that reason,
the Middle East is the only viable answer. It was the crucial region where humans converged
east and west, north and south, since the dawn of human society.
Early human migration path studies have proven that the Middle East indeed acted as a hub
or artery, somewhat like a major subway station that contained and diverted people. When anatomically
modern humans migrated out of Africa, the Middle East was their first stop; almost all
humans went through the Middle East to get to other places on the planet. There is also
clear evidence that people migrated from the Middle East to Australia, Siberia and northeast
China tens of thousands years ago. On the other hand, there is basically no data, which
signifies ancient people from Northeast China or Australia reverse-migrated to the Middle
East during that period of time. For that reason, I think it's very possible that the
head wrapping tradition originated in the Middle East.
Now here’s a real intriguing question: why was an elongated skull the representation
of high social class, intelligence and wealth? Why not emphasize a different shape? What
inspired that particular look?
The closest extinct relatives of modern humans, the Neanderthals also had elongated skulls.
Though their skulls elongate from front to back, which are longer instead of taller.
Most primates have elongated skulls. We can tell that the head binding was not meant to
mimic the Neanderthals.
Was it because people desired to make their babies look taller? Well, a person’s height
could be important but it was not really associated with intelligence or social status in antiquity.
It’s not like a tall person would automatically be recognized as belonging to an elite class;
or the elites would be constantly changing and being replaced by taller individuals.
I don’t think this is something that the privileged class wanted to do.
Was the head binding customs due to people emulating a group of elites who naturally
had elongated head shapes? That is a more reasonable answer. Then who were these people?
Have archeologists found any natural elongated skulls?
In the Middle East region, some mind-boggling human shaped artifacts showing long pointed
heads. Here are the Neolithic clay figures excavated from Israel, Yarmukian Culture,
dated to over 8,000 years ago. This is a mother goddess figure from Tell es-Sawwan in Iraq
from the same era. The most shocking ones are from Mesopotamia Ubaid period, 6500 –3800
BC. These female figures have lizard faces, long pointed heads and slender bodies. Some
show suckling babies with similar elongated heads. The Ubaid male clay figure also has
a tall and long head.
The Ubaid period is before the Sumerian city states. Sumerians had rounded heads and didn’t
do head binding which was clearly reflected in their art. Were the Ubaid and Yarmukian
human figures with long pointed heads related to the head binding tradition? Were these
figures made to represent these ancient people or the gods they worshipped? Did their gods
have elongated skulls? I don’t know but I’m intrigued by the possibility.
Artificial cranial deformation is deeply rooted in human history. If we can understand this
practice better, we might uncover crucial information about who we are and where we
come from. Our story is our past and our past is still being discovered. If you have any
insights, please leave me a comment. If you like my video, please give me a thumbs up
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new videos. I have a wide range of topics that I want to share with you. This is Curious
Being, I’m Tina. Thanks for watching and see you next time.