Deformed Dark Age Skull Found in French Excavation

It's not every day that archaeologists find skeletons of people who lived in the Middle Ages, but when we add the fact that it's a member of the aristocracy, the rarity becomes even more evident. This is what archaeologists found on a French excavation - carried out in the Alsace region. On the site, 38 tombs from the Stone Age to the "Dark Ages" were found.

And it is from this second period that the protagonist of this story emerges: a skull of a woman who lived in the aristocracy of France during the economic decline of Europe. What is most curious is how historians can claim that it is indeed an aristocrat: the skull found is deformed and there are signs that it was purposely done with it still alive - about 1, 650 years ago.

Along with the skeleton, many valuables were also found. These include bronze mirrors, belts with precious materials for the time, some gold props, and others that reveal the aristocratic character of the bones. It is worth mentioning that the excavation began in 2011 when the tombs were found, but only in 2013 did archaeologists dig deeper and locate the bodies.

Why the deformation?

According to the history of Europe during the Middle Ages, in some periods of the Dark Ages, aristocratic women used bandages and other equipment to force deformation on their heads. Chances are this was only allowed for the wealthiest people, as these skulls are often found in tombs with many valuable objects.

As historians reported to the Huffington Post, the deformed skulls of rich women are commonly related to the region of Germany, France and Eastern Europe, and the tradition would have been taken from central Asia - thanks to the Huns and later to the Germanic peoples. .