Skull deformation

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“Always the same sleeping position” as a possible form of one-sided stress on the skull requires suitable, scientific evidence.
Mangbetu mother with infant, Congo, between 1929 and 1937, Tropenmuseum , Amsterdam
Classification according to ICD-10
M95.2 Other acquired deformity of the head
Q75.8 Other specified congenital malformations of the skull and facial bones
ICD-10 online (WHO version 2019)

As skull deformation ( Schädeldeformierung , skull deformation ) refers to both the reversible and the irreversible deformation of the skull . This usually arises from the fact that the still soft infant or child's skull is subject to either a one-sided, light load over a long period of time (e.g. due to the same sleeping position) or a short-term heavy load (e.g. due to narrow birth canals, obstetrical forceps). Skull deformations are a common term in both medicine and ethnology .

At least until the 20th century, in mild forms possibly still today, skull deformations were also made artificially . In order not to cause too much damage to health, these interventions had to be performed in early childhood, usually by bandaging. However, the strong protrusion of the eyes was noticed. Such deformations were also widespread between Central Europe and Central Asia during the Migration Period . It was carried westward by equestrian nomadic tribes fleeing the Huns and taken over there by Germanic peoples.

medicine

Skull deformations (also known as skull asymmetry in medicine) can arise for various reasons: On the one hand, they can occur as a result of childbirth if the forceps act too strongly or if the birth canals are too narrow. In this case the deformation is mostly temporary.

A skull asymmetry can also be caused by stronger influences on the skull over a longer period of time, e.g. B. by lying incorrectly and on one side.

In the third case, the deformity of the skull is a result of changes in the brain that are congenital or acquired in the first few months. These are mostly permanent. These include:

In the case of the intended deformation observed in ethnology and historical sciences, it was assumed until a few years ago that there would be no negative consequences for the health of those affected. However, it seems that these are more commonly affected by certain diseases. The consequences include the more frequent protrusion of the upper row of teeth, osteoarthritis of the lower jaw joints or narrowing of the eye sockets.

History and ethnology

Head of a princess from the Amarna period of Egypt (18th dynasty), quartzite , Neues Museum, Berlin
Skull from the Crimean peninsula , incorrectly ascribed to the Avars in the 19th century

The oldest deformations can be observed in Neanderthal skulls in Shanidar (43,000 BC). However, doubts have been expressed about this. Corresponding finds from the Neolithic Age, however, are considered certain, Italian and Hungarian finds prove the custom up to 10,000 years ago, the oldest finds date from the 9th millennium BC. BC. Finds from the Caucasus and Ukraine appear much later than in the Middle East.

Another form of skull manipulation, the opening of a hole in the skull, the so-called trepanation, is considered even older . Another manipulation in the head area appeared to be the removal of the incisors, which can be seen during the Neolithic in Italy and in North Africa during the Ibéromaurus (skull Hattab II, northern Morocco, 8900 ± 1100 BP).

From antiquity to the early Middle Ages

The Greek doctor Hippocrates reported in the 5th century BC. BC by the people of the Macrokephaloi , who deform their children's heads after birth first with their hands and later with bandages. He believed that this manipulation, once carried out, was hereditary, like naivety. Kurt Pollak suspected a need to be able to externally distinguish the “noble” from “the rest of the people”. Archaeologically, a higher social position can only be proven in individual cases based on the grave equipment. There were also deformed skulls in Crete.

Deformed skull of an Alamannin during the Migration Period
Deformed skull of a young woman, probably an alanine , Yverdon Museum

Most of the intended skull deformities in Eurasia date from the 1st to 7th centuries. Central Asia is assumed to be the place of origin, where they can be found in the 1st century. Ethnically they are assigned to the Huns .

In the 5th and 6th centuries, skull deformations are occasionally found in grave finds of peoples subjected or influenced by the Huns such as the Goths, Gepids (in these cases up to the 6th century), Thuringians , Alemanni , Franks (the last two rather rare, 7th century), Bavarians (at least 20 skulls at 7 sites, especially one man and 10 women at the Straubing-Bajuwarenstrasse row graveyard), Heruli , Longobards and Burgundians can be identified. The deformed skull of Frau von Obermöllern published by Friedrich Holter in 1925 is one of the typical, mostly female, deformities. The head was shaped into an elongated shape from childhood on with tightly tied bandages. In 2006, 64 finds with verifiable skull deformations were known in Germany, 15 from Switzerland and 43 from France. The earliest graves in Austria can be dated to the first half of the 5th century, while deformed children's skulls from the end of the 5th or 6th century. Century are no longer proven. In Hungary, too, the number of deformed children's skulls decreased drastically after the middle of the 5th century. At the discovery site in Vienna- Mariahilfer Gürtel, there was evidence that the custom was abandoned around the last third of the 5th century. Although this is probably related to the end of the Attila Empire from 453 onwards, because the custom disappears earlier with children, but the custom of burying the deceased without ceramic goods shows that there was continuity of settlement from the 5th to the 7th century.

By means of isotope studies it could be shown that those affected mostly lived in a fixed place, so it was not a question of immigrants who had come to the find area through marriage contracts from other tribes, for example. This made it probable that it was a matter of imitation processes of nomadic culture by the Germanic groups. J. Werner was the first to assume that the custom was spread by the Huns. But some of the individuals with skull deformities ate differently than the average of the local population. They consumed grains that were not native to Central Europe. Investigations on a woman from Burgweinting (Regensburg) showed that she was most likely of Asian descent on the mother's side, but that she has a local signature according to the strontium isotopic.

Often, it was assumed, the skull deformation had a social significance and was reserved for the upper class. The conclusion drawn on the basis of ethnological comparisons that they were members of aristocratic groups could not be confirmed on the basis of the often modest grave furnishings. Assimilation processes to a culture that is temporarily considered to be superior are more likely to be considered here.

Modern times

"Toulouse deformity"

The French doctor Delisle reported deformed skulls in the French departments of Haute-Garonne and Seine-Maritime at the end of the 19th century . He estimated that 15% of men and 10% of women had misshapen skulls. These were caused by children's hoods and headbands. The girls mostly wore this headgear until they got married, while the boys only wore it until they were eight. This tradition in the 14./15. The 19th century probably started from Belgium and was practiced in the southern French regions until the end of the 18th century.

Asia, South America, Africa

Skull deformation, Nazca culture (200 to 100 BC)
Breastfeeding Mangbetu mother with an infant whose head is bandaged, Casimir Zagourski, between 1929 and 1937, Congo, now in the Tropenmuseum, Amsterdam

In Asia there were head deformations in South Asia (especially India) and in Asia Minor.

A particularly large number of deformed skulls were found in Central and South America in the tombs of the Maya , the Inca and other Andean peoples. A deformed head was probably considered beautiful and noble here as well. Some North American Indian tribes, the Chinook , also deformed their children's skulls.

Some peoples, like the Mangbetu in the northeast of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, used to deliberately deform the skulls of their babies with boards and bandages.

Intentional and unintentional deformation, motifs

In the case of a skull deformation (also head deformation in ethnology), the back of the head was flattened, lengthened or the forehead flattened. Such skull deformation is an irreversible change in the shape of the skull carried out by parents or loved ones in early childhood. This practice is often a parental investment of time and energy in the future of their child. The child himself cannot give his consent. This intentional deformation must be distinguished from the unintentional, because incorrect positioning of the infant can also have similar effects. Even if one of the two crown sutures (skull seam between the frontal and parietal bones ) grows together, a "crooked skull " is formed. If the crown seam grows together (skull seam between the two parietal bones), a "tower skull" is formed.

Three motives can be deduced from ethnological studies. On the one hand, it was often a means of achieving a certain ideal of beauty, which was especially adopted for women. On the other hand, higher social groups often demarcated themselves. After all, this was the way men were supposed to get a warlike appearance.

Rudolf Virchow assumed that there had been a development from accidental to deliberate, from simple to complicated deformation. Since the apparition was to be found everywhere, be it with the Ashanti and Mangbetu of Africa, the Chinook of North America, there seemed to be no motive other than the need for demarcation of the leading groups. In addition, depending on which issues were at the center of society, considerations of utility emerged, such as carrying loads, hunting or protection from injuries, physical and mental strengthening, the ideal of beauty, the differentiation from other "races", even the distinction from Animal.

The triggering of the phenomenon by an abnormality, the genetic craniosynostosis , has also been considered. This is a premature ossification of one or more skull sutures. The normal growth of the skull is not possible and a compensatory growth with unusual skull shapes occurs.

See also

literature

  • Gerhard Hotz, Liselotte Meyer: Artificial skull deformities - an ancient and worldwide phenomenon. In: Bulletin of the Swiss Society for Anthropology. 17, 1-2, 2011, pp. 87-96.
  • Karin Wiltschke-Schrotta: Manipulated Bodies - Thoughts on Artificial Skull Deformation. In: Communications from the Anthropological Society in Vienna. 134/135 (2004/2005), pp. 11-27.
  • Skull deformation. In: Reallexikon der Germanischen Altertumskunde . Volume 26, Walter de Gruyter, 2004, pp. 571-577.
  • Peter C. Gerszten: An investigation into the practice of cranial deformation among the Pre-Columbian peoples of northern Chile. In: International Journal of Osteoarchaeology. 3, 1993, pp. 87-98.
  • János Nemeskéri: About the artificially deformed skull of Schöningen, Kr. Helmstedt (5th – 6th century). In: News from Lower Saxony's prehistory . 45, 1976, pp. 129-154.
  • Paraskevi Tritsaroli: Artificial cranial modification on a female skeleton from the byzantine site of Maroneia (Thrace, Greece). In: International Journal of Osteoarchaeology. 21, 2011, pp. 464-478.
  • MA Balabanova, AV Sycheva: Radiological investigations of the late Sarmatian skulls with deliberate deformation. In: M. Mednikova (Ed.): Artificial deformation of human head in Eurasian past. Opus: Interdisciplinary Investigation in Archeology. Institut of Archeology RAS 5. Volume 5, Moscow 2006, pp. 152-163. (Russian, with English summary)
  • MP Rhode, BT Arriaza: Influence of cranial deformation on facial morphology among prehistoric South Central Andean populations. In: American Journal of Physical Anthropology. 130, 2006, pp. 462-470.
  • C. Torres-Rouff, LT Yablonsky: Cranial vault modification as a cultural artifact: a comparison of the Eurasian steppes and the Andes. In: Homo. 56, 2005, pp. 1-16.
  • Ágnes Kustár: Facial reconstruction of an artificially distorted skull of the 4th to the 5th century from the site of Mözs. In: International Journal of Osteoarchaeology. 9, 5, 1999, pp. 325-332.
  • Doris Pany: The children's skeleton from the Migration Period from Schwarzenbach-Burg, Wiener Neustadt district, Lower Austria, with an artificially deformed skull. In: Archaeologia Austriaca. 86, 2002, pp. 149-161.

Literature on the history of science

  • Rudolf Virchow : About the skulls of the older population of the Philippines, especially about artificially defaced skulls of the same. In: Negotiations of the Berlin Society for Anthropology, Ethnology and Prehistory . 2, 1870, pp. 151-158.
  • Johann Gerhard Friedrich Riedel: About artificial deformation of the head. In: Journal of Ethnology. 3, 1871, pp. 110-111.
  • Nicolaus Rüdiger: About the arbitrary disfigurement of the human body. In: Rudolf Virchow, F. v. Hotzendorff: Collection of commonly understood scientific lectures. 9. ser., H. 215, 1875, pp. 1-43.
  • Rudolf Virchow: About skull shape and skull deformation. In: Correspondence sheet for Anthrop. 32, 10-12, 1892, pp. 135-139.
  • Michel Deutsch: About the skull deformation and the skull shapes on Vancouver Island following the description of two deformed skulls from this island. Dissertation. 1893.
  • José Imbelloni: The types of artificial skull deformation. In: Anthropos. 25, 1930, pp. 801-830.
  • Pedro Weiss: Tipología de las deformaciones cefálicas de los antiguos peruanos, según la osteología cultural. In: Revísta del Museo Nacional. 31, 1962, pp. 13-42.

Web links

Commons : Skull Deformation  - Collection of Images, Videos and Audio Files

Remarks

  1. ↑ a b Alphabetical directory for the ICD-10-WHO version 2019, volume 3. German Institute for Medical Documentation and Information (DIMDI), Cologne, 2019, p. 773.
  2. ↑ LC Argenta, LR David, JA Wilson, WO Bell: An increase in infant cranial deformity with supine sleeping position. In: J Craniofac Surg. 7 (1), Jan 1996, pp. 5-11.
  3. ↑ Shane R. Tubbs, E. George Salter, W. Jerry Oakes: Artificial Deformation of the Human Skull: A Review. In: Clinical Anatomy. 19, 2006, pp. 372-377.
  4. ↑ I. Kiszely assumes that the migratory custom of skull deformation in Europe in the 5th century mostly occurs in population groups such as Ostrogoths , Alans , Sarmatians and Quads . Defeated rider-nomadic groups were partly assimilated by the Huns invading Europe and belonged to the Hunnic tribal association, partly rider-nomadic groups fleeing from the Huns formed an alliance with Germanic warrior units. The early finds of sculpted skulls in Eastern Europe are older than the earliest references to the Huns in this area. In addition, there are hardly any known finds of deformed skulls from the burial grounds of the Huns. See I. Kiszely: The Origins of Artificial Cranial Deformation in Eurasia from the Sixth Millenium BC to the Seventh Millenium AD In: BARIntSer 50. Oxford 1978.
  5. ↑ L. Jozsa, I. Pap: Pathological alterations on artificially distorted skulls. In: Annales Historico - Naturales Musei Nationalis Hungarici. 84, 2006, pp. 189-194.
  6. ↑ Erik Trinkaus : Artificial Cranial Deformation in the Shanidar 1 and 5 Neandertals. In: Current Anthropology . 23, 2, 1982, p. 198 f.
  7. ↑ KW Alt: The artificial skull deformation in the West Germans. In: M. Mednikova: Artificial deformation of human head in Eurasian past, Opus: Interdisciplinary Investigation in Archeology . Institut of Archeology RAS 5, Moscow 2006, pp. 115-126.
  8. ↑ A. Yu. Khudaverdyan: Cranial deformation and torticollis of an early feudal burial from Byurakn, Armenia. In: Acta Biologica Szegediensis. 56, 2, 2012, pp. 133-139, here: p. 137.
  9. ^ John Robb: The Early Mediterranean Village. Agency, Material Culture, and Social Change in Neolithic Italy. Cambridge University Press, 2007, p. 38.
  10. ^ Louise T. Humphrey, Emmy Bocaege: Tooth Evulsion in the Maghreb: chronological and geographical patterns. In: African Archaeological Review. 25, 2008, pp. 109-123.
  11. ↑ Peter Mitchell, Paul Lane (Ed.): The Oxford Handbook of African Archeology . Oxford University Press, 2013, p. 434.
  12. ↑ Georg Wöhrle, Jochen Althoff (Ed.): Biology . Steiner, Wiesbaden 1999, p. 68 f.
  13. ↑ Kurt Pollak: Knowledge and wisdom of the old doctors . Econ, 1968, p. 48.
  14. ↑ Friedrich Holter: The grave field near Obermöllern from the time of old Thuringia (= annual publication for the prehistory of the Saxon-Thuringian countries. Volume 12. Issue 1). State Institute for Prehistory, Halle 1925.
  15. ↑ Bendeguz Tobias, Karin Wiltschke-Schrotta, Michaela Binder: The Longobard -era burial ground of Vienna-Mariahilfer Gürtel. With a contribution to the artificial skull deformation in the western Carpathian Basin. In: Yearbook of the Roman-Germanic Central Museum Mainz. 57, 2010, pp. 279-337. (on-line)
  16. ↑ M. Schweissing, G. Grupe: Local of nonlocal? A research of strontium isotope ratios of theeth and bones on skeletal remains with artificial deformed skulls. In: Anthropologischer Anzeiger. 58, 2000, pp. 99-103.
  17. ^ J. Werner: Contributions to the archeology of the Attila Empire . Bayer. Akad. Wiss., Phil.-Hist. Kl. Abhandl. NF, Munich 1956, pp. 13-18.
  18. ↑ Bendeguz Tobias, Karin Wiltschke-Schrotta, Michaela Binder: The Longobard -era burial ground of Vienna-Mariahilfer Gürtel. With a contribution to the artificial skull deformation in the western Carpathian Basin. In: Yearbook of the Roman-Germanic Central Museum Mainz. 57, 2010, pp. 279–337, here: p. 299.
  19. ↑ P. Broca: Sur la déformation toulousaine du crâne. In: Bulletin de la Société d'anthropologie de Paris. 1-2, 1871, pp. 100-131. ( persee.fr )
  20. ↑ Real Lexicon of Germanic Antiquity . Volume 26, Walter de Gruyter, 2004, p. 574.