Cube-shaped skull unearthed in Mexico gives new insight into lost, ancient civilization

A cube-shaped skull that was discovered in Mexico provides rare insight into a 1,400-year-old Mesoamerican civilization’s social practices — which included deliberate deformation.The skull belonged to a man who died at around 40-years old and between 400 and 900 AD in the modern-day Balcón de Montezuma archaeological zone in Tamaulipas, according to a news release from Mexico’s National Institute of Anthropology and History.Biological anthropologist Jesús Ernesto Velasco González said in the release that the man’s skull drastically deviated from the cone-heads that have previously been recovered in the area.Artificial cranial deformations weren’t uncommon among Mesoamerican societies.Velasco González explained that modified skulls found in Balcón de Montezuma are typically “erect” and distinctly “alien” — but the one that was unearthed most recently was cube-shaped.Velasco González explained that the modifications were likely made through similar practices using a “compression plane” to reshape a baby’s head.

He said the new artifact is “parallelepiped,” or closer to the shape of a parallelogram than a sphere.Researchers speculated that the man’s uncommon mold was specific to his culture, though the exact meaning and affiliation are still unknown, according to the release.Having a uniquely shaped skull was typically a sign of things like elevated class and deep spirituality, depending on the civilization, Velasco González said.

He explained that it influenced an entire society’s cultural garb including the use of cranial “ornaments that distinguished them from others,” according to the release.Flat-topped skulls have been unearthed in and around territory associated with the Mayans, who never established a camp in Tamaulipas.In Mayan culture, cranial modifications were seen as a symbol of protection and a required step in the “ritual ensoulment,” a process they believed helped ensure lifelong protection, accordi...