The tradition of artificial skull deformation, achieved by elongating it during infancy, was widely used in many ancient cultures.
Numerous findings of artificially deformed skulls have been recorded in both Americas, Africa, Asia, and Russia (Crimea, Southern Russian steppes, Siberia, Caucasus, Volga region, as well as the Ural Mountains, where remains with elongated skulls were found in Arkaim).
In Europe, such a practice was primarily prevalent only in France, and was unpopular in other countries, but recently Swedish scientists learned that skull elongation was not uncommon for women in the ancient Viking culture. At least on the island of Gotland.
In particular, during excavations, they discovered three female skulls about 1,000 years old, which were artificially elongated. Not as dramatically as in Peru, of course, but nearly resembling ancient Egypt.
Scientists believe that girls had their skulls elongated before the age of 1 year, when the bones are still soft and pliable, tightly wrapping the infants’ heads with bandages. This was done as a sign of status (meaning nobles elongated their children’s heads), as well as to appear more beautiful.
The discovery of elongated skulls on Gotland, in the Baltic Sea, was a sensation, as nothing similar had been found in the remains of ancient Scandinavians before. The nearest culture to this area that used the tradition of artificial skull elongation lived near the Black Sea.
Therefore, Matthias Toplak, the head of the archaeological group, believes that the Gotland Vikings saw elongated skulls during one of their expeditions to distant lands, for trade or conquest, it is unknown.
And they might have liked this unusual skull shape very much, so when they returned home, they decided to replicate it with their own children. Although it is not clear why this was done only with girls, perhaps the remains of Gotland men with elongated skulls have not been discovered yet.
DNA analysis of the skulls showed that all three women were indeed locals, not foreigners brought to Gotland as slaves.
It is interesting that scientists explain the tradition of skull deformation in other cultures primarily as a sign of status and adherence to certain beauty standards that ancient people wanted to meet. However, where these norms originated from, no one knows. Whom did the ancient Peruvians, Sarmatians, Africans, and others want to imitate so much?
Scientists say “the Gods” to this question. But again, why are people all over the world, even those separated by vast oceans, so convinced that the Gods had elongated heads?
Researchers like Erich von Däniken, who believe in the theory of ancient contact, argue that people indeed wanted to imitate the Gods and have elongated skulls like them. Because the Gods were almighty. Only these Gods were not imaginary, but very real extraterrestrials, who arrived from other planets on spaceships thousands (or even millions) of years ago.
It was these “Gods” who created modern humans, by enhancing the brains of our ape-like ancestors in their laboratories or by creating hybrid beings between their own kind and these semi-apes.
The most popular theory among ufologists is that these extraterrestrials were called the Anunnaki, and the story of their creation of humans is detailed in Sumerian-Akkadian tablets.
One of the elongated skulls from Gotland
