Skull shaping, then and now

A long-standing mystery over the way men's skulls changed from long to round in medieval Europe has been deepened by discoveries at a Yorkshire village. . .

Immigration and climate change have been the two main hypotheses but neither makes sense of the 700 Yorkshire skeletons. They are expected to cause widespread revision of the period's history, as the first large-scale find from a single, accurately-dated indigenous community. . .

The skulls also show that only men were affected, which would not have applied if its cause was new genetic stock.

The change from long to round then reversed, which also calls the genetic hypothesis into question. What isn't brought up in this Guardian article is the possibility of some cultural influence: headbinding being the first thing that comes to mind:

In some parts of Europe, especially France, head elongation was practised up until the late 19th century. In the Deux-Sevres area, head elongation involved wrapping the baby's head in a tight bandage. The binding was left for a period of two to four months and was then replaced with a fitted basket. When the baby was older, the basket was strengthened with metal thread.

In the Normandy region it was customary to bind a child's head with at least two coiffures (headresses) and a piece of canvas to tightly compress the skull.

It seems that worldwide, head-shapers have preferred elongated to round (some examples noted here), but perhaps the fashion in medieval Europe was different, at least for boys. And before you sneer, take a look at this.

Getting back to the Yorkshire excavations, the Guardian article also notes:

The study, the latest of 14 volumes on 40 years of excavation at Wharram, also shows that left-handedness was much more common in medieval times, at 15% compared with 8% today. Infant mortality was also unexpectedly low, possibly because illness and poor diet set in only after weaning off breast milk.

Posted by David on August 25, 2007 6:08 PM