Not All 'Shrunken Heads' in Museums Are Real. But There's a Way to Tell

It's simple to overlook the fact that these recognizable shrunken heads are actually the remains of real people who once lived and breathed since they have been reduced to the size of an apple and have had their eyes and lips sewed shut.

The well-known artifacts (sometimes referred to as tsantsas) of the Shuar indigenous people of Ecuador have long been traded as curiosities, utilized as sets in theater and movies, and displayed to draw audiences.

It is practically hard to distinguish which tsantsa are genuine artifacts of a vanished civilization and which were created to capitalize on our craving for the weird and exotic since the boundary between cultural artifact and whimsical trinket is so blurred.

An experimental method for identifying which artifacts are most likely to be false has now been developed by researchers from Western University, Object Research Systems, and the University of San Francisco in Quito, Ecuador.

Researchers were able to identify significant variations that distinguish ceremonial from commercial tsantsas by using various X-ray scan resolutions to highlight differing degrees of detail in cuts, anatomy, and stitching.

The paucity of written documents and contradictory data have made it difficult to understand the history of the peculiar funeral ritual.

Some believe that the Shuar, who have lived in Ecuador and Peru for generations, are the exclusive owners of this territory. Some believe it encompasses additional societies that speak one of many roughly similar languages.

According to ethnohistorians, this practice of removing and conserving heads in this way dates back to the sixteenth century and was carried out with the goal of encasing a person's spirit.

Many believed it was only ever conducted on the Shuar's adversaries, such as the Amazonian Achuar people, but according to modern Shuar authorities, it was also done on esteemed local leaders.

Numerous uncertainties persist as there are no clear records of the ritual's origins or even of how it was carried out.

However, the fundamental procedures for creating a ceremonial tsantsa are generally accepted.

Just a quick word of caution for those who are easily offended: you might want to skip the following three sentences.

Typically, heads were cut off at the base of the neck and strung on a vine or placed in a basket before being sent back for processing. The skull was taken and dumped into a nearby river after being split apart with a bamboo knife, a sharp stone, or a shell.

After that, the skin was heated for up to two hours to kill any remaining bacteria and slightly shrink the flesh. The face and scalp were then turned inside out, the connective tissue was removed as much as possible, the eyes were closed with fibers from an Astrocaryum chambira palm, and everything was then turned back the proper way.

Hot pebbles were then inserted into the skull to assist further shrink it after the mouth had been stitched shut with extra fibers or pegged shut with bamboo. Finally, heated sand was poured inside, filling every crevice and helping to assure preservation by drying it out.

We can only speculate as to what explorers and missionaries might have thought upon coming upon these potent totems. However, the Shuar and Achuar began trading with adjacent European immigrants in the early to mid-19th century. These ceremonial magic jars were among the things that found their way into the hands of collectors all across the world.

Therefore, pig, monkey, and sloth skins were creatively altered to look somewhat human, in addition to actual human heads making their way onto the market.

It's not as simple as looking for traces of a human origin in the skin and hair to determine the difference between something that is ceremonial and something that may be sold for a profit, though.

According to certain reports, even real heads may have been embellished with animal hair and other materials. Unreliable news stories have even alleged that occasionally local hospitals would provide the materials with unclaimed human remains.

Researchers contend that it may be possible to fill in the gaps in our understanding of the origins of these shrunken heads by focusing on a small number of details that can be used to increase the likelihood that a tsantsa in a collection was made for a ceremonial purpose. These details include the stitching, the anatomy of the ear and eye, and the scalp.

However, there are telltale signals of forgery if you know where to look. These include the form of anatomical features, the length and density of hair strands, and the folding of the skin. X-ray CT scans recorded at various resolutions are the best tool for making these observations.

Anthropologists can examine the ethnography of South America's indigenous people by understanding the history of any particular tsantsa. It gives a variety of human remains that were previously purchased and sold as simple relics a measure of dignity.