A revolutionary scanning technique has allowed researchers to peer inside a shrunken head for the first time and confirm it was human, and not one of the many counterfeits manufactured for European fascination.
Indigenous tribes living in the Amazon rainforest between the borders of eastern Ecuador and northern Perú crafted tsantsas (shrunken heads).
Though the story of the tsantsas remains shrouded in mystery, anthropologists broadly believe that the Shuar and Achuar tribes created them to trap the souls of their enemies.
The artifacts are stored in museums across Europe and the Americas, and could offer researchers a window into the unique cultural practices — not to mention the human story behind each one.
“The tsantsa are a very important part of what [Shuar] traditions were and how they were changed through different colonization periods,” says Maria Patricia Ordóñez at the San Francisco University in Quito, Ecuador. “Today they are a symbol of their identity.”
