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Throughout history, individuals across the globe have engaged in various forms of body modification, including tattoos, piercings, and scarification. These alterations, however, typically occur during a person's lifetime, with the individual having some control over what happens to their body. After death, the deceased's body is usually handled with respect, often through burial or cremation.
In certain ancient cultures, however, dead bodies were altered, and parts of them were preserved for symbolic, ritualistic, or practical purposes. Some corpses were modified before burial, either to protect the living or as part of specific funerary ceremonies. These fascinating practices have resulted in some eerie archaeological discoveries.
10. Skull Cups
Skull cups have been made by various cultures throughout history. These cups are crafted by taking the cranium of a deceased individual and shaping it into a usable vessel. The focus is generally on the top portion of the skull, known as the calvaria, and sometimes decorative carvings are added. The oldest known skull cups were discovered in Gough's Cave in Somerset, England, dating back 14,700 years. These cups were found in a cave along with other human remains, likely cracked open to extract the bone marrow.
Additional skulls that were modified and may have served as cups have been found in Nawinpukio, Peru, dating from AD 400 to 700, and from the Bronze Age in El Mirador Cave, Spain. The creation of skull cups became systematic during the Neolithic period in Herxhein, Germany, with earlier examples made during the Upper Paleolithic in Le Placard Cave, France. Vikings and Scythians are said to have used the skulls of their fallen enemies as cups to absorb the dead's power or to assert their dominance. Historical texts also mention the use of skulls as drinking vessels by the Aghori in India and Aboriginal peoples in Australia, Fiji, and other Pacific islands.
Tibetan skull cups, called kapalas, were used by both Buddhists and Zoroastrians, who practiced sky burials. In these rituals, the deceased's body would be left exposed to vultures and other birds, which would strip the flesh. Afterward, wine was poured into the skull, and it was offered as a sacrifice to the gods. Kapalas are still available for sale today, though the ethics and legality of selling them are highly controversial, and in many places, such sales are completely banned.
9. Bones As Tools
The practical use of skeletons was also seen in the ancient city of Teotihuacan in Mexico. Between AD 200 and 400, this pre-Aztec society crafted everyday items like buttons, combs, needles, and spatulas from the bones of freshly deceased individuals. They used femurs, tibiae, and skulls for this purpose. Stones were employed to de-flesh and shape the bones, and the process likely began shortly after death to prevent the bones from becoming too fragile for crafting. All the tools discovered so far were made from the bones of local young adults, with none made from foreigners, children, or the elderly.
A Neanderthal skull bone, over 50,000 years old, was also used as a tool. Found among other Neanderthal remains near the Voultron River in France, the bone was utilized for sharpening stone tools.
8. Bones As Jewelry
Bones have also been transformed into jewelry. Around 3500 BC in Neuchatel, Switzerland, human cranial bones were carved into oval amulets with a hole drilled into one end. Similar pendants have been discovered in Port-Conty, La Lance, and Concise, all located in Switzerland.
Necklaces made from hand and foot bones have been discovered in Mexico as well as in the Plains and Great Basin regions of the United States. These bones were strung together to create long chains or used as pendants on necklaces. It is believed that these items were crafted from the remains of deceased enemies to symbolize victory.
7. Bones As Musical Instruments
The Aztecs crafted a percussion instrument known as the omichicahuaztli using human bones, particularly from the arms or legs. These instruments have been found across various archaeological sites throughout the Aztec Empire, with the bones being notched to create sound. Occasionally, animal bones, such as a turtle's scapula or a whale's rib, were also used to create the same instrument.
Tibetan Buddhists played a trumpet-like instrument called a kangling, made from a human femur. This instrument, which was part of Tantric and funerary rituals, served as a reminder of the impermanence of the human body. Typically, the femur would come from a criminal or someone who met a violent death, but if none was available, it could be sourced from a teacher. Originating in India 1,500 years ago, it spread to Tibet around AD 800.
6. Ritual Corpse Mutilation
In present-day Lapa do Santo, Brazil, some of the earliest human skeletons from the New World have been uncovered in a cave nestled deep within the rainforest. People have lived in this area for over 12,000 years, initially burying their dead in a complete state. However, between 9,600 and 9,400 years ago, burial customs underwent a transformation, and the deceased were systematically mutilated.
The deceased’s teeth were extracted after death, and their bodies were dismembered and stripped of flesh. Evidence suggests the dead were either burned or consumed, with their bones later being placed inside another person’s skull. No other funeral rites from the same period (such as grave goods) have been discovered, leading researchers to believe that the mutilation itself was the primary ritual practice linked to death.
5. Ritual Decapitation
Across cultures, decapitation has been a symbol of dominance, signifying triumph over adversaries. One of the skeletons found at Lapa do Santo had been decapitated postmortem, with the head twisted and ripped from the neck. The head was interred separately from the body, with the hands placed over the face—one facing upwards and the other facing downwards.
In Dorset, England, archaeologists uncovered a mass grave of 54 Scandinavian Vikings, dating back between AD 910 and 1030. All the individuals were young men, likely in their late teens or early twenties, with no signs of battle wounds. Their bodies were buried together, while 51 skulls were placed in a separate heap. The heads had been crudely severed shortly after death and kept apart from the bodies. Three heads are still missing and have not been located. It is assumed that these belonged to key members of the group and that their heads were taken to another location as a display of their conquerors’ victory over the Vikings.
4. Head Shrinking
The Jivaro tribes, indigenous people from the Amazon rainforest in southern Ecuador and northern Peru, were known for the practice of head shrinking. After decapitating their enemies, they would shrink the heads and carry them around as trophies. These heads, called tsantsas, were created to prevent the spirit of the slain from seeking revenge, to demonstrate the strength of the head shrinker's tribe, and to show the ancestors that blood revenge had been enacted.
To shrink a head, the process began immediately after the victim’s death, with the head being severed. The skin was peeled off the skull and then subjected to a meticulous week-long procedure. This involved boiling it at an exact temperature for a specific amount of time, sewing the eyelids shut, using wooden pegs to close the mouth, filling the head with hot stones and sand, and rubbing it with charcoal. Once the process was finished, the head would be worn as a necklace. These heads were typically discarded after they were displayed to nearby tribes, but when Westerners arrived, they began purchasing them. Despite its ancient origins, the practice continued into the 20th century until the sale of shrunken heads was banned in the 1930s.
3. Possible Cannibalism
Cannibalism may not be an intentional form of body or skeleton modification, but it still leaves its traces on the bones. In El Sidron, Spain, remains of 12 Neanderthals show evidence that they were likely cannibalized by other Neanderthals 49,000 years ago. Their long bones—such as arm and leg bones—were cracked open to extract the marrow, and there are cut marks on the bones indicating that they were de-fleshed and disarticulated.
Researchers have also identified human gnaw marks on bones from different periods. Among them are 12,000-year-old bones from Gough’s Cave in England, and even 800,000-year-old bones from Homo antecessor in Gran Dolina, Spain. This suggests that cannibalism wasn’t practiced solely by Neanderthals.
2. Mellified Men
This practice, unlike others mentioned here, began before a person's death. In 12th century Arabia, men who felt their end was near would begin consuming nothing but pure honey, using it not just for sustenance but also to wash themselves. Eventually, this process would result in their demise. Once deceased, their body was sealed in a stone coffin filled with even more honey. A few centuries later, their bodies would be extracted, broken into smaller pieces, and sold at bazaars as a form of medicinal candy.
The practice was described by Chinese travelers, notably by Li Shizhen in his 16th-century compendium of rare remedies, the Bencao Gangmu. Though there has been some debate regarding whether mellification was truly practiced, human remains found in present-day Georgia were mummified in honey some 4,300 years ago. It is also said that Alexander the Great was preserved in honey, and Herodotus wrote about the Assyrians embalming their dead in honey.
1. Vampire Treatments
Vampires have long been feared around the globe, leading to various measures being taken with the bodies of the deceased to prevent them from rising and terrorizing the living. In Europe, one common method was to force a brick into the mouth of the corpse, often causing teeth to break in the process. This was observed, for instance, with a 16th-century woman found in a plague grave in Venice, Italy.
After death, some bodies were staked through the heart to ensure they could not return. This was the case for two 800-year-old corpses found in Sozopol, Bulgaria, where large iron rods had been thrust through their chests. Another 700-year-old man from Bulgaria was pierced with an iron rod through his chest and had his teeth removed postmortem before burial. In Poland, several bodies have been interpreted as vampires. For example, two middle-aged women had a rock and sickle placed across their necks, and a male and female were decapitated and buried on their sides.
