Wow! Deformed “alien” skulls have been unearthed in Hungary

Over the past decades, numerous artificially deformed “alien-like” skulls have been found in a Hungarian cemetery. These skulls are more than 1,000 years old, and they provide an insight into the social changes that occurred during the so-called Migration Period, approximately between the 4th and 8th centuries.

The large-scale migrations that took place during the 4th and 5th centuries brought Slavic and Germanic tribes, such as the Goths, Vandals and Franks, into closer contact with the Roman Empire and culture. Skull binding is a type of artificial cranial deformation that was practised by people in central Europe, mainly in the 5th century. The deformed and elongated head shapes evoke the aliens of sci-fi movies, LiveScience wrote.

The region’s most extensive collection of skulls was found in a graveyard in Mözs-Icsei dűlő, Hungary, first excavated in 1961. A new study argues that skull-binding communities presumably co-existed with other cultures during the 5th century, and this body modification practice might have been shared between the groups.

The practice of artificial cranial deformation involves binding a child’s head from infancy to deform the skull. It has been practised since at least the Neolithic period in cultures all over the world and has persisted to modern times, German lead author Corina Knipper and Hungarian co-authors István Koncz, Zsófia Rácz and Tivadar Vida reported. In Europe, this type of skull deformation practice appeared in the 2nd and 3rd centuries and reached a high-point in the 5th and 6th centuries.

“The site of Mözs (in the former Roman province known as Pannonia Valeria) that we studied represents this period and is an excellent example of a community in which the custom was widespread,” the co-authors said.