Overmodelling is more than just decorating a skull: it means applying a malleable substance to the bone and then sculpting it to resemble a fleshed face. Overmodelled skulls from Jericho date back to 7000 BC, but overmodelling has also been practised in Melanesia in living memory. It has appeared over a wide geographic area though in only a dozen cultures (among them Papua New Guinea, Colombia, Egypt and the Ukraine), but the far-flung examples have not been described in a single book until now.
Art Aufderheide, the palæopathologist and author of the encyclopædic The Scientific Study of Mummies, who has examined more mummies than anyone on Earth, has spent several years travelling both hemispheres, tapping the knowledge of museum curators, and seeking contributions from archæologists, anthropologists and ethnologists. The result is a 360-page volume in which Dr Aufderheide identifies all known or reported examples of overmodelling, and gathers all existing cultural, historical and archæological information.
The scientific collection of specimens commodified (and, therefore, presumably tainted) overmodelling and probably encouraged the theft of skulls from local burial grounds. In addition, procurement from non-literate societies by other than systematic excavation (for instance, by purchase, donation or confiscation) makes the specimens difficult to interpret.
Despite these difficulties, Dr Aufderheide details the secular and spiritual myths behind the customs and discusses the meticulous crafting of these sometimes sinister and sometimes comical objects, illustrated in 140 colour photographs.
A majority of the skulls are adult males. Most had crudely shaped ears, many had wigs of human hair and spider web, and eyes replaced with shells, several were meant to be worn as masks, and some held the mandible in place with string and had replaced lost teeth. They were in part portraiture, as evidenced by the modelling of a harelip and the reproduction of correctly-proportioned noses. They showed the individual in his prime rather than at the time of death, often stylising the features and minimising physical defects.
The stories of skull overmodelling involve ancestor veneration, funerary rituals, skull cults, secret societies, initiation ceremonies, exhumation and excarnation, trophy skulls, headhunting raids and trepanation. These sculpted skulls were used to remember, to divine, to harness the powers of the dead.
The general reader will be intrigued by data gathered by an anthropologist who lived with one tribe from 1876 to 1906, and by first-hand accounts of ceremonies like this one in 1878: “Suddenly some creatures loomed out of the bush. Some wore masks made from half a skull, the front part of which was modelled with gum giving the impression of a human face. They gripped the masks in their teeth… The dancers were wearing long black wigs made of coconut fibres, while their bodies were covered with dead leaves.”
There are also fascinating descriptions of the practice of cranial deformation, the related creation of mortuary effigies and skull puppets, and the preparation of the Chinchorro mummies of northern Chile – which, with emptied abdominal cavities filled with ritual objects, could be considered “human shrines”.
The scientist will have a thorough bibliography, a synopsis of the geographic and environmental motivators of the custom, the anthropological analysis of 39 of the skulls, and the results of CT scans, dental analysis, and radio-carbon dating.
Whether you are a professional or a layperson, your thirst will be thoroughly quenched.
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