Now this is a fascinating thread and reminds me why I first came here. Well Slayer, I have to say, you don't author threads often but I find them worth reading to the last links I am able to run down. This one just boggles my mind and I can't wait for forensics to tell us what is or isn't here to know. It's about time science dug in and started getting definitive where it's possible to be.

I'm certainly no forensic anthropologist or medical examiner, but I have the picture from the thread on one side of a big TV/Monitor and I have a window with tabs of other skulls to compare through on the other side of the screen there. Does anyone else tend to see more than simply skull size and shape about this as being different? Where are all the teeth? The other skulls I am looking at from known 'binding' examples don't change facial bone structure, let alone actual length and structure of the jaw.

Yet.....That was a pretty tiny little set of chompers it had. Young, perhaps. Perhaps not. The teeth which are there are sure interesting for a size perspective. Not tiny baby teeth which may be argued would have filled the space normally. Those are large enough to fit what? 3-4 to a side and each for top and bottom?

Big eye sockets also seem all out of proportion to...what nose, when side by side to normal or artificially 'bound' skulls? It's not so weird to scream ET! in my opinion but it's just enough off-kilter in just enough small things to wonder if it's entirely human or perhaps even a subspecies we've not been aware of?

The mysteries of our little rock never stop coming! (Maybe this one won't be much longer? )

Wikipedia says:

Cranial deformation was probably performed to signify group affiliation, or to demonstrate social status.

Hmm... seems a rather tenuous explanation, in my opinion. Surely there are much simpler ways of achieving either of these things than by painstakingly changing the shape of a child's head over many years...

The whole subject is mysterious.

Oh wow!!! This is awesome!!!!!

Hopefully we will know sooner than later what the results indicate.

I cant help thinking though...

If this were a baby of mine it would take a long time to make their head that long as it took
me months of rubbibg their head in a circular motion day in and day out for their little heads to become perfectly round.

So.... Whats up with the huge eye sockets ? Lol

The baby in that picture seems to have more than just a huge head... The eyes and spine look very odd to me as well !! Lol

Slayer as always you bring light to this community and I thank you for that!!!!

Jenn

Eta: Omg!!! I just saw the " babys" teeth..... My what big teeth you have my lil alien hybrid baby

Does anyone else get the feeling by looking at the skull that this kid was kinda cute?

Here is another child skeleton from Peru that's been siting in one of their museums for a few years now.

Very cool thread.

As you noted, the jaws seem different as well (thicker), and there are other features (eyes sockets etc. as noted) that look "different." Do we know anything in detail about the skeletons that have been found with them? It would be interesting to run a survey of how similar or different non-skull bones are. (Limbs, ribs, etc)

My mother (nurse) once had to look after a child that had some rare disorder where his head grew as normal, but his body never grew past say, a toddlers body. I remember that kid. so depressing, but somehow he lived for a very long time (actually, he might still be alive today, and perhaps 20 years old by now).

In saying that, the pic in ops is quite large and irregular. Just saying, there are things that make heads grow while bodies remain..its tragic, but thats mother nature for you. Not saying the skull is definately of "normal" origins. just putting perspective on things before people go demanding this is ET

Will try to get the info from my mom later on about what the name of the disease is

I find these skulls fascinating. While the prospect of them being alien in nature is of course intriguing, what I find even more intriguing is that there are documented cases of at least some of them being created intentionally. One has to ask "why?" I don't think you can just say "because humans do crazy things to their bodies." If you dig a little deeper into some of these bizarre practices there are often some very logical reasons behind them (not saying all of them of course - I will never understand why a person feels the need to get their belly button pierced). For example foot binding in a wife ensured she was pretty much housebound and thus more chaste - no real way to stray when you're hobbling along. It was also thought to tighten certain "muscles" if you catch my drift. Regarding the lip plates I have heard that it got started to dissuade slave traders from picking you - big crazy lip = less chance some white landowner would want to buy you back in the colonies. I'm not saying these practices themselves make sense, but the reasons behind them are certainly understandable. What then could be the reason for wanting an elongated head? To say it was a sign of "status" is not sufficient - foot binding and lip plates too became symbols of status but they did not start out that way. There were other motivations that initiated them. So what could motivate the desire for an elongated head? I think the theory that they were imitating this head shape because they respected the "people" who had them is a good one and opens up all sorts of possibilities.... Hoping to hear more about this topic. I think this is legitimately fascinating.

2 things come to mind:

Would there not be evidence of stretching (elongating) on the skull itself? Since children grow in spurts rather than at a steady rate, it seems to me that there would be 'stretch marks' as many of us get on our skin as a result of sudden growth spurts. Stands to reason that there might be some evidence of stretching on the skull itself. Maybe from the growth spurt or whatever was used to bind.

Also, I have always thought of the possibility of neanderthal cro-magnon cross-breeding in our earlier ancestors to bring forth a species that has long died out because of the fear of difference. Perhaps this is an off shoot that either died out because of the offspring not being able to function properly with these skulls or killed off out of fear.

Good read as always Slayer

Peace SNF

Alien hybrid ? Not a believer when one takes a look at cultures across the globe from neck stretching to ring lips, and things in between I am thinking man in his infinite wisdom "thought it would be cool" to have an "alien head children" that was probably the inspiration to the Alien movie line.

Emulation religious beleifs take your pick.

Are the orbital sockets normally that size? Just askin- they seem kinda large but that may be typical for an infant skull?

Originally posted by jude11
2 things come to mind:

Would there not be evidence of stretching (elongating) on the skull itself? Since children grow in spurts rather than at a steady rate, it seems to me that there would be 'stretch marks' as many of get on our skin as a result of sudden growth spurts. Stands to reason that there might be some evidence of stretching on the skull itself. Maybe from the growth spurt or whatever was used to bind.

Also, I have always thought of the possibility of neanderthal cro-magnon cross-breeding in our earlier ancestors to bring forth a species that has long died out because of the fear of difference. Perhaps this is an off shoot that either died out because of the offspring not being able to function properly with these skulls or killed off out of fear.

Good read as always Slayer

Peace SNF

Depends on how young the headbinding began on the child. Babies skulls are not as hard as an older child's skull, if done at a proper age in infantcy you couldn't tell they were not born that way and that was the entire point, to make it look natural. Head binding was stylish for those people. Certain groups of people have peculiar practices in certain parts of the world, some asian nations practice footbinding which malforms the feet and leaves women crippled to the point they cannot walk because having tiny feet for their people has sex appeal. Women nowadays in western nations dress trashy because it's en vogue, are we going to go pointing the finger at them and accusing them of being aliens?