Surprising Discovery of Ancient Babies Wearing Human Skull Helmets

Based on a new study, the remains of two ancient infants from a South American burial grounds have been discovered and it was found out that these babies were made to wear the skulls of other dead children as infant helmets.

According to a study published in the Latin American Antiquity journal, it was the first-ever discovery of an ancient culture where the skulls of dead children were used by a group of people as a helmet for the dead during their burial ceremonies.

The excavations made during 2014 to 2016 in Ecuador's coastal area, the remains of 11 persons from the ancient times' burial sites were discovered. Two were from adults, one from a child, and four of them were the remains of dead babies. Small tools and shells were discovered together with the remains of these ancient people.

Two of the four babies, that were thought to have lived in 100 BC, were discovered wearing helmets and caught the attention of the scientists during its excavation.

University of North Carolina's assistant professor Sara Juengst had led the research on the remains of the babies with human children's skull helmets.

The research identifies that one of the babies with the helmet was eighteen months old when it died. The team of Sara Juengst had also identified that the owner of the skull which the baby wore was between four to twelve years old when it died.

The skull headgear was placed on the heads of the deceased babies and a bone from the fingers of a dead child was also observed to be placed on the center of the baby's head and the skull headgear.

The other baby was estimated to be six to nine months old when it faced death. It was also found out that it had worn a skull helmet of a child who died between the age of two to twelve years of age.

According to the research team of Juengst, there is a probability that the infant helmets still had flesh attached to them when they were worn by the infants. This conclusion was made as children's skulls don't hold together unlike those of an adult.

According to the research team of Juengst, there are still unanswered questions regarding ancient babies with human skull helmets. Some of these unanswered questions were the identities of the persons whose skull had been used as headgears for the two infants and the other question was the reason why only the two babies wore these helmets while the others found in the burial ground did not.

Despite the many questions the researchers are still trying to answer, one other thing that they are certain is that the detachment of head for South America had symbolic importance and that people who died as children were treated differently.

The head of a human for South American may symbolize many things depending on the region and its cultures.

One theory of the research team was that the human skull headgears were worn to protect the souls of the deceased infants.