The incredible 'alien' skull discovered in a Mexican cemetery: 1,000-year-old skeleton reveals bizarre practice of binding heads

• Find is new evidence of cranial deformation, where skulls were tightly bound in wooden supports to alter their shape
• Unique head shape was used to differentiate different social classes
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By MARK PRIGG

PUBLISHED: 19:47, 18 December 2012 | UPDATED: 08:29, 19 December 2012

It is an astonishing image that could have come straight from the plot of a Ridley Scott movie. Archaeologists in Mexico today revealed the astonishing skull of a person suffering from a cranial dis-figuration.

Believed to be 1,000 years old, the find was made near the small Mexican village of Onavas.

One of the 13 individuals with cranial deformation discovered in the cemetery in Mexico

The find is believed to be the first in the region showing the practice of binding a skull to change its shape.

'Cranial deformation in Mesoamerican cultures was used to differentiate one social group from another and for ritual purposes,' said archaeologist Cristina Garcia Moreno, director of the research project.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2250145/The-incredible-alien-skull-discovered-Mexican-cemetery.html#ixzz2JaQTz5SM 
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