1855.] 405 



On artificially formed Skulls from the Ancient World. 



By Prof. A. Retzius, (Stockholm, Sweden). 

 [Communicated by Prof. Charles D. Meigs.] 



Several years ago the eminent anatomist, Professor Joseph Hyrtl, of Vienna, 

 had the kindness to send me a cast of an artificially formed skull of great interest. 

 The original, found at Grafenegg, in Austria, has, by its owner, Count August 

 von Brauner, been considered as having belonged to an individual of the Avari- 

 an Huns, who lived in the neighborhood from the end of the seventh to the be- 

 ginning of the eighth century. Of this skull I have given in 1844 a description 

 in the Proceedings of the Royal Academy of Sciences of Stockholm, which was 

 :he following year inserted both in HornschucKs Archiv Skandinavischer Bei- 

 trilge zur Naturgeschichte, and in Muller's Archiv fur Physiologic I showed 

 there that this skull, which had been considered remarkable for its length, 

 certainly was extremely high, but on the contrary short, or of the brachiocephalic 

 form, to which the skulls of the Avarians, as related with those of the Finlanders, 

 must belong. This opinion gained at the time very little approbation, because 

 Dr. Tschudi, renowned for his travels and researches in South America, shortly 

 after with so much certainty declared that the skull in question was of Peruvian 

 origin, and supposed that it had been brought over from Peru to Austria with 

 other collections. Tschudi's opinion gained many adherents, and the question 

 about the custom in the ancient world of forming the head artificially sank for 

 some time in oblivion. Through a very excellent treatise by Doctor Fiizinger, 

 in the Transactions of the Imperial Academy in Vienna, it has been shown that 

 the skull found at Grafenegg must undoubtedly have belonged to an individual 

 of the ancient inhabitants of the country. He has not only wholly explained al) 

 important circumstances concerning this skull, but has also got a quite similar 

 one from Atzgerrsdorf, in south Austria 1\ mile from Vienna. This had been 

 dug out of the earth in presence of the physician of the place, Milller. This skull, 

 as well as the original of the one first mentioned, are now at the Imperial anato- 

 mical museum at Vienna. The author shows the resemblance between these 

 skulls and tho=e which have been found at Krim and described by Messrs. Rathe 

 and Charles Meyer. He mentions the account of Hippocrates (de aere aquis et 

 locis Lib. 1,) about the macrocephali or Scythians in the neighborhood of the 

 Moetian moor, who had artificially formed skulls. Further he quotes Pcmponius 

 Mela (de situ orbis Lib. 1. chap. 19), who says that the custom of changing the 

 form of the head reigned also among the inhabitants of the Bosphorus ; Pliny 

 the older, who accounts for the macrocephali in the neighborhood of Ceresus in Na- 

 tolia on the coast of the Black Sea, the Keresum of the present day ; also Sup h anus 

 Byzantinus (Geographica,) who tells us of macrocephalic Scythians among the 

 inhabitants of Colchis, now Mingrelia, on the east coast of the Black Sea. He 

 quotes from Strabo (Lib. II, Chap. 16), the Derbikks on the Caucasus, towards 

 the Caspian sea, and the Sigyns, Median colonists, who are said to have lived in 

 the valley of the Danube at the river Taler, as nations who have used to change 

 the form of the head, so that the forehead was thus put forward. Doctor Fitz- 

 inger mentions also another circumstance of importance in connexion with the 

 description of these skulls, namely, a medal of unknown origin, representing the 

 destruction of the town of Aquileja by Aitila, with Attilas head in profile, with 

 the same form as the skulls of Avarians before mentioned. The same medal in 

 gold is preserved in the royal medal cabinet at Stockholm, where the Rep. ha3 

 had the opportunity to see it, and to agree with Dr. Fiizinger. Beside these 

 important informations respecting the singularly formed heads of the Avarians, 

 this excellent treatise contains al o a close examination of the human skulls 

 found in the forest of Vienna in the Calvarian mountain, which were described in 

 1830 by Count Rasumowsky in Oken's Isis, as having an extraordinary form, 

 and which the Rep. in his former treatise did unjustly believe to be of the 

 same form as the Avarian skulls. Dr. Fiizinger has examined these heads and 

 has found that they are of the Slavic form. This learned treatise is furnished 



