350-year-old mummified head from Bolivia isn't what it seems

An unusual mummified head discovered in Bolivia more than a century ago isn't what it seems, a new study finds.

Originally thought to be the remains of an Inca man, the mummified head is actually from someone from a different culture who had incisions cut into their skull, possibly as part of a ritual, the research reveals.

The new analysis is an attempt to place the individual in their archaeological context and to "give them back their local history," according to the researchers.

"These remains are not just bones in an anthropological collection," museologist and art historian Claire Brizon of the Cantonal Museum of Archaeology and History in Lausanne, Switzerland, told Live Science. "They are the remains of individuals in their own right."

Brizon is the senior author of the new study, published Aug. 27 in the International Journal of Osteoarchaeology, that analyzed the mummified head. It consists of its mummified skin, face, cranium, jaw and part of the neck. Remarkably, the top of the head is roughly conical and bears a prominent lesion from an attempted trepanation — the process of drilling or cutting a hole through the bone of the cranium.

But there are no signs that the trepanation was done in response to trauma, which suggests it might have had a ritual or social purpose, the researchers wrote in the study.

Related: The Incas mastered the grisly practice of drilling holes in people's skulls

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This composite photograph of the head shows (A) the face; (B) inside the neck, where it seems torn-off rather than cut; (C) a close-up of the head near its right eye, and (D) "pock marks" on the right cheek, possibly caused by insect damage.

The skull has a prominent lesion near the top of its head caused by an attempted trepanation.

Collected in Bolivia

The new analysis determined that the head was from an adult man who died at least 350 years ago and that he had undergone "cranial deformation" as a child — a relatively common practice in pre-Colombian South America that was achieved by tightly binding an infant's head for many years.

In addition, the trepanation attempt on the top-right side of his skull was not completed, for some reason; deep incisions were made in the outer layers of the bone, but it had not perforated the inner layers, the researchers wrote.

The study also includes research into how the mummified head was obtained by the museum and where it came from. The researchers found that the skull was donated to the museum in Lausanne in 1876 by a Swiss collector, who had obtained it in Bolivia.

A note attached to the head said it was from an Inca person. However, the researchers found that the type of cranial deformation indicated it was from one of the Aymara, an Indigenous group living in the Bolivian Highlands.

The note also said the head was recovered in a particular area of Bolivia, which is now known to be where the Aymara live. According to the new study, it was probably taken from a "chullpa" — a stone burial tower that was once common in that region — and it had likely been naturally mummified by the cold and dry climate there.

Preserving human remains

In keeping with their mission, the researchers were careful to use only noninvasive methods of analysis — as opposed to radiocarbon dating, for example, which often requires cutting, scraping or drilling a small hole in an object to obtain enough material for a sample.

Because the dead man could give no consent, it was important to use analytical methods in line with what he might have wanted, study lead author Claudine Abegg, an anthropologist at the University of Geneva, told Live Science.

In addition, destructive testing such as isotopic or DNA analysis might be able to give more precise results than the methods used in the study, "but that decision should rest with communities connected to him," she said.

For now, the mummified head is still in the museum collection, although it is not on public display. Brizon said the museum had not yet received any requests for its repatriation but was open to inquiries.

Julia Gresky, a paleopathologist at the German Archaeological Institute who was not involved in the latest study but has researched trepanations and cranial deformations, told Live Science that she had never before seen a head that had undergone both cranial deformation and an attempted trepanation.

In this case, there was no obvious trauma that might have been the reason for the trepanation attempt — although brain disorders wouldn't leave any evidence on the skull — so it might have been performed for ritual or social purposes, she said.

But she had no explanation for why the trepanation was not completed. "Maybe the person said, 'I'm sorry, but I don't want any more,'" Gresky said.

Editor's note: This article was updated at 10:57 a.m. ET on Sept. 17 to note that the mummified head was donated to the museum in Lausanne in 1876, not 1914 as was previously stated.