Mysterious Ancient Rulers With Elongated Skulls – Who Were
They Really?
Ancient elongated skulls have always been a subject of
heated scientific debate.
Were the skulls deliberately deformed to resemble ancient
sky gods or were ancient rulers with cone-shaped heads of extraterrestrial
origin? Another possibility is that bizarre skulls were the result of an
ancient genetic mutation between various races.
The mystery of elongated skulls deepens when we consider
that numerous powerful rulers with elongated skulls were present in different
corners of the world. Obviously, this subject is very intriguing because the
unique shape of the skulls offers evidence of contact between ancient cultures
separated by vast distances.
King Tutankhamun, often referred to as King Tut was not only
depicted having an elongated skull, but he had a cone-shaped head in real life.
His original name, Tutankhaten, means “Living Image of
Aten”, while Tutankhamun means “Living Image of Amun”. King Tut ruled Egypt as
pharaoh for 10 years until his death at age 19, around 1324 B.C.
Some have speculated that the pharaoh suffered from a
variant of Antley-Bixler syndrome, a genetic mutation that produces elongated
skulls and under-developed genitalia. However, this is one of the many medical
claims for which not enough evidence can be found.
Interestingly, King Tut’s father Akhenaten (aka Akhenaton),
one of Ancient Egypt’s most controversial and notable pharaohs also had an
elongated head, a long neck, long fingers, thick thighs, feminine attributes,
and other strange features.
Pharaoh Akhenaten is best known for transforming Egypt’s
religious system from worship of multiple gods to the worship of one god.
Pharaoh Akhenaten said he was direct descendant of Aten and
considered himself to be of divine nature and was treated like a god.
Scientists have suggested that Pharaoh Akhenaten may have
had two medical abnormalities that could explain his portrayal in sculpture and
carvings with an exaggerated female appearance and elongated head.
Professor of dermatology at Yale University School of
Medicine, Irwin M. Braverman, M.D. believes that the shape of Akhenaten’s head
is caused by a condition known as craniosynostosis, in which sutures, the
fibrous joints of the head, fuse at an early age, and interfere with the
process of skull formation. The specific condition, called a sagittal suture,
is dominantly inherited.
Unfortunately, these scientific speculations can be neither
denied nor confirmed as the hypothesis is based only on art-based diagnosis
because although bodies of many pharaohs and members of their families have
been preserved as mummies, no mummy of Akhenaten has been found.
Renowned for her beauty after her death and during her life
as a queen, Neferneferuaten Nefertiti (ca. 1370 – ca. 1330 BC) was the Great
Royal Wife (chief consort) of Akhenaten. Although, her reign was only 12 years,
she was perhaps one of the most powerful queens to ever rule.
Supporting her husbands’ beliefs she changed her name to
Neferneferuaten-Nefertiti meaning, “The Aten is radiant of radiance [because]
the beautiful one has come.
Nothing is known about the queen’s childhood and no evidence
has yielded who her parents are. Some believe her father could be Aye due to
inscriptions found inside his tomb proclaiming him the father of her sister
Mutnodjmet. She played an important role in the changes of the ancient Egyptian
society, helping her husband Akhenaten to spread Monotheism across the country.
Like so many other ancient rulers in Egypt and across the
world, Nefertiti’s head was also elongated.
If we turn our attention to the American continent, we find
also examples of ancient people with cone-shaped heads.
K’inich Janaab’ Pakal reigned between 615 683 CE. Lord Pakal
was the founder of the Mayan Empire and the first king of the Mayans. He was
responsible for the construction or extension of some of Palenque’s most
notable surviving inscriptions and monumental architecture.
For a very long time it was assumed that Lord Pakal was
Pakal was nothing more than a legend, a myth. However, that opinion changed
when a mysterious tomb that possibly holds the remains of the great Maya king was
located. The discovery of his tomb remains one of the most spectacular finds of
Maya archeology.
The problem is that archaeologists and other scientists are
still uncertain whether the bones in the tomb are really those of Pakal because
analysis of the wear on the skeleton’s teeth places the age of the owner at
death as 40 years younger than Pakal would have been at his death. Epigraphers
insist that the inscriptions on the tomb indicate that it is indeed K’inich
Janaab’ Pakal entombed within, and that he died at the age of 80 after ruling
for around 70 years. Another problem with this remarkable discovery is that for
some reason no photo the skeleton of Lord Pakal has been released to the
public.
According to radio host Kevin Smith, “information leaked out
from the excavation team that Pakal was a giant, had six fingers and toes on
each hand and foot, had a “strong complexion” and a cone shaped skull. None of
that has been said officially.
In fact, the official version is devoid of photos. There is
not one single photo of the skeleton of Lord Pakal that has been released to
the public. Although we cannot tell for sure by looking at this bust of Pakal,
it does appear that it is possible he had an elongated skull. Apparently, that
is what the archeologists found, and what was leaked by members of the
excavation team. The leaked info also said he had a “strong” complexion. The
leaked info was that Pakal’s skeleton was about 9 feet tall.
More mysterious is the fact that the Mexican government has
closed the information on Pakal. Whatever photos may exist of his skeleton have
never been released to the public. Their official statement about his skeleton
is that it deteriorated rapidly after exposure to air and is now just “junk”.
And we just have to take their word for it because they never released any
photos or videos of Lord Pakal’s remains. Why?”
Archaeologists who studied the mysterious Paracas culture
(c. 700 BC – 100 AD) in Peru have unearthed tombs containing skeletons with
enormous elongated skulls.
The scientific name for this is dolichocephally. Most skulls
exhibiting this condition were clearly the result of the practice of
head-binding. And so how was this achieved?
“A very young child’s
skull is pliant at birth, and remains in this way for months.
Angel Ruíz Novelo, Portrait Head of the ruler K’inich Janaab
Pakal II, based on the stucco portrait of the king found beneath his
sarcophagus at Palenque, Chiapas.
It is therefore possible, by lashing a rope around the head,
with a board placed at the back of the skull, and perhaps the front as well, to
alter the shape of the head over time. Many authors state that the time period
to perform this shaping was about 6 months to 3 years, but since the practice
is no longer performed to my knowledge, no one really knows.
Examples of this technique, supposedly last performed on
infants in the Congo of Africa and the Island of Vanuatu in the south Pacific
Ocean area known as Melanesia, well into the 20th century, have also been found
in Egypt, during the Amarna period, Sudan, Iraq, Syria, Russia, the island of
Malta, as well as many places in Peru and Bolivia, and amongst the Olmecs of
Mexico.
What you are capable of doing via this technique is to
change the shape of the skull, but not the actual volume; you can alter the
shape, but not the size,” Brien Foerster says.
Today, we know that artificial cranial deformation on
infants was present in numerous ancient cultures, including some of the
greatest, such as the Indus Valley, Sumerian, Egyptian, Olmec, Mayan, Inca and
other ancient civilizations. Tombs containing adults and children with
elongated skulls have been discovered in many parts of the world.
The earliest written record of cranial deformation dates to
400 BC in Hippocrates’ description of the Macrocephali or Long-heads and the
earliest known examples of intentional human cranial deformation predate
written history and date back to 45,000 BC in Neanderthal skulls, and to the
Proto-Neolithic Homo sapiens component (12th millennium BCE) from Shanidar Cave
in Iraq.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Please leave a comment.