The Sundarban 
The skull was originally donated to the Swiss museum in 1876 below suspicious circumstances. Credit: Abegg et al (2025)
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Whereas re-evaluating a centuries’ conventional, elongated skull originally theorized to belong to an Incan “tribal chief,” a team of archaeologists in Switzerland came across a startling discovery. The mummified cranium instead seemingly belonged to a respected member of a separate indigenous neighborhood that lived as matters contained within the Incan empire. Their findings are published within the International Journal of Osteoarchaeology and are now serving to recontextualize the remains whereas also addressing the self-discipline’s longstanding ethical factors.
Older archaeological collections regularly contain complicated, uncomfortable historical truths. Whereas aloof an challenge today, archaeology’s earliest years have been even additional plagued by limitless examples of unethical excavations, cultural biases, and outright theft. One such example dating back to 1876 fervent dozens of human remains and artifacts recovered in South America.
After emigrating to Chile, Swiss entrepreneur Louis Kuffré began amassing and donating various archaeological finds to his place of origin’s museum, at the side of an artificially elongated skull labeled “No. 10.” According to Kuffré’s label, the neatly-preserved head belonged to “an Inca from Bolivia” discovered at an “Indian smash within the plain of the Cordilleras at the foot of Mount Illimani at 12,900 feet of altitude.” Kuffré additional claimed the individual’s burial circumstances advised he was a “tribal chief.”
Alternatively, researchers led by gape co-author Claudine Abegg judge the cranium (now identified as I Y-001) tells a very diverse yarn. After careful evaluation of the evidence, the team contends the label’s original reference to the “Indian smash” seemingly refers to a burial tower called a “chullpa.” These constructions have been constructed by the Aymara other folks around Lake Titicaca at the explain-day border between Peru and Bolivia. Although the Aymara eventually became part of the Incan empire around the 16th century CE, they persevered to practice clear cultural traditions—notably skull elongation. And whereas their chullpas usually housed other folks of greater social status, they didn’t always contain local chiefs.
A sizable surgical incision also reveals that the man seemingly underwent an attempted trepanation, a path of all the way via which a gap is created within the skull to alleviate factors admire cranial swelling or external injuries. The trepanation was no longer accomplished, nonetheless signs of healing indicate the man persevered living for at least a whereas after the medical treatment—regardless of also nursing a significant tooth abscess.
Radiocarbon dating would have been extraordinarily damaging to the skull, so the archaeologists instead relied on historical context clues to estimate its age. Records indicate that skull elongation was formally banned by Viceroy Francisco de Toledo between 1572 and 1575, whereas the last documented example occurred all via the mid-17th century. Because of this, Abegg’s team confidently believes the man lived at least 350 years ago.
This skull is simplest one among the many examples of archaeological remains that deserve a contemporary explore as consultants proceed to reckon with centuries of problematic excavations.
“It requires that one plight aside their contain perspective on death and the ‘legal’ treatment of human remains, which is a matter of ethics and changes from individual to individual, from culture to culture,” Abegg said in a statement. “Whereas it is easy to say, objectively brooding about one’s contain biases on any given topic and bypassing them is no longer easy on a daily basis.”
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