..Egyptian mummies with red hair
Mummies
Red Haired Mummies in Egypt.
RamsesII
Professor P. F. Ceccaldi, with a research team, studied some hairs from the mummy's scalp. Ramesses II was thought to be 87 years-old when he died, and his hair had turned white. Ceccaldi determined that the reddish-yellow color of the hair was due to a dye with a dilute henna solution. Many Egyptians dyed their hair, and this personal habit was preserved by the embalmers. However, traces of the hair's original color remained in the roots. Microscopic examinations showed that the hair roots contained natural red pigments, and that therefore, during his younger days, Ramesses II had been a red head. Analysis concluded that these red pigments did not result from the hair somehow fading, or otherwise being altered after death, but did represent Ramesses' natural hair color. Ceccaldi also studied the cross-section of the hairs, and determined from their oval shape, that Ramesses had been "cymotrich" (wavy-haired). Finally, he stated that such a combination of features showed that Ramesses had been a "leucoderm" (white-skinned person).
THE RED HAIRED RAMSES II - LAST SIGNIFICANT WHITE PHARAOH
Egypt's last display of national vigor came with the red haired Pharaoh Ramses II (1292 - 1225 BC). Ramses II managed to re-establish the already decaying Egyptian Empire by recapturing much land in Nubia.
He also fought a series of battles against invading Indo-Europeans, the Hittites. This was culminated with the battle of Kadesh in northern Syria. Ramses signed a treaty with the Hittites in 1258 BC, which ended the war. In terms of the treaty, Ramses took as his wife an Indo-European Hittite princess. His other achievements included the building of the rock-hewn temple of Abu Simbel, the great hall in the Temple of Amon at Karnak, and the mortuary temple at Thebes.
After this king, Egypt entered into a steady period of decay, caused directly by the elimination of the original Egyptians, and their replacement with a mixed population made up of Black, Semitic and the remnant White population. This racially divergent nation was never again to reach the heights achieved by the First, Second or the first part of the Third Kingdoms. In these later years there were competing claimants to the pharaohs throne, many of whom, racially speaking, bore no resemblance to the original pharaohs at all.
The mummy of the wife of King Tutankhamen has auburn hair.
A mummy with red hair, red mustache and red beard was found
by the pyramids at Saqqara.
Red-haired mummies were found in the crocodile-caverns of Aboufaida.
The book HISTORY OF EGYPTIAN MUMMIES mentions a mummy with reddish-brown hair.
The mummies of Rameses II and Prince Yuaa have fine silky yellow hair. The
mummy of another pharaoh, Thothmes II, has light chestnut-colored hair.
An article in a leading British anthropological journal states that many mummies have dark reddish-brownhair. Professor Vacher De Lapouge described a blond mummy found at Al Amrah, which he says has the face and skull measurements of a typical Gaul or Saxon.
A blond mummy was found at Kawamil along with many
chestnut-colored ones.
Chestnut-haired mummies have been found at Silsileh.
The mummy of Queen Tiy has "wavy brown hair."
Unfortunately, only the mummies of a very few pharaohs have survived to
the 20th century, but a large proportion of these are blond.
The Egyptians have left us many paintings and statues of blondes and redheads. Amenhotep III's tomb painting shows him as having light red hair. Also, his features are quite caucasian
A farm scene from around 2000 B.C. in the tomb of the nobleman
Meketre shows redheads.
An Egyptian scribe named Kay at Sakkarah around 2500 B.C. has blue eyes.
The tomb of Menna (18th Dynasty) at West Thebes shows blond girls.
The god Horus is usually depicted as white. He is very white in the Papyrus Book of the Dead of Lady Cheritwebeshet (21st Dynasty), found in the Egyptian Museum in Cairo.
A very striking painting of a yellow-haired man hunting from a chariot can be found in the tomb of Userhet, Royal Scribe of Amenophis II. The yellow-haired man is Userhet. The same tomb has paintings of blond soldiers. The tomb of Menna also has a wall painting showing a blond man supervising two
dark-haired workers scooping grain.
The Funerary stele (inscribed stone slab)of Priest Remi clearly shows him as having red hair,
The eye of Horus, the so-called Wedjat Eye. is always blue.
A very attractive painting is found on the wall of a private tomb in West Thebes from the 18th Dynasty. The two deceased parents are white people with black hair. Mourning them are two pretty fair-skinned girls with light blond hair and their red-haired older brother.
Queen Thi is painted as having a rosy complexion, blue eyes and blond hair. She was co-ruler with her husband Amenhotep III and it has been said of their rule. "The reign of Amenhotep III was the culminating point in Egyptian history, for never again, in spite of the exalted effort of the Ramessides, did Egypt
occupy so exalted a place among the nations of the world as she had in
his time."
Amenhotep III looks northern European in his statues.
Paintings of people with red hair and blue eyes were found at the tomb of Bagt in Beni Hassan. Many other tombs at Beni Hassan have paintings of individuals with blond and red hair as well as blue eyes.
Paintings of blonds and redheads have been found among the tombs at
Thebes.
Blond hair and blue eyes were painted at the tomb of
Pharaoh Menphtah in the valley of the Kings.
Paintings from the
Third Dynasty show native Egyptians with red hair and blue eyes.
They are shepherds, workers and bricklayers.
A blond woman was painted at the tomb of Djeser-ka-ra-seneb in Thebes.
A model of a ship from about 2500 B.C. is manned by five blond sailors.
The god Nuit was painted as white and blond.
A painting at the tomb of Meresankh III at Giza, from about 2485 B.C., shows white skin and red hair.
Two statues from about 2570 B.C., found in the tombs at Medum, show Prince Rahotep and his wife Nofret. He has light green stones for eyes. She has
violet-blue stones.
A painting from Iteti's tomb at Saqqara shows a very Nordic-looking man with blond hair.
Grafton Smith mentions the distinctly red hair of the 18th Dynasty mummy Henutmehet.
Harvard Professor Carleton Coon, in his book THE RACES OF EUROPE, tells us that "many of the officials, courtiers, and priests, representing the upper class of Egyptian society but not the royalty, looked strikingly like modern Europeans, especially long-headed ones." (Note: Nordics are long-headed.) Long-headed Europeans are most common in Britain, Scandinavia, the Netherlands, and northern Germany.
Time-Life books put out a volume called RAMESES II THE GREAT. It has a
good picture of the blond mummy of Rameses II. Another picture can be
found in the book X-RAYING THE PHARAOHS, especially the picture on the
jacket cover. It shows his yellow hair.
A book called CHRONICLE OF THE PHARAOHS was recently published showing paintings, sculptures and mummies of 189 pharaohs and leading personalities of Ancient Egypt. Of these, 102 appear European, 13 look Black, and the rest are hard to classify. All nine mummies look like our Europeans.
The very first pharaoh, Narmer, also known as Menes, looks very Caucasion
The same can be said for Khufu's cousin Hemon, who designed the Great Pyramid of Giza, with help from Imhotep. A computer-generated reconstruction of the face of the Sphinx shows a European-looking face.
It was once painted sunburned red. The Egyptians often painted
upper class men as red and upper class women as white; this is because
the men became sun-burned or tanned while outside under the burning Egyptian sun. The women, however, usually stayed inside.
In 1902, E. A. Wallis Budge, the renowned Egyptologist, described the pre-dynastic Egyptians thus:
"The predynastic Egyptians, that is to say, that stratum of them which was indigenous to North Africa, belonged to a white or light-skinned race with fair hair, who in many particulars resembled the Libyans, who in later historical times lived very near the western bank of the Nile." [E. A. W. Budge, Egypt in the Neolithic and Archaic Periods (London: Kegan Paul, Trench & Trübner, 1902), p. 49.]
Later, in the same book, Budge referred to a pre-dynastic statuette that: "has eyes inlaid with lapis-lazuli, by which we are probably intended to understand that the woman here represented had blue eyes." [Ibid., p. 51.]
In 1925, the Oxford don L. H. Dudley Buxton, wrote the following concerning ancient Egyptian crania:
"Among the ancient crania from the Thebaid in the collection in the Department of Human Anatomy in Oxford, there are specimens which must unhesitatingly be considered to be those of Nordic type. [L. H. D. Buxton, The Peoples of Asia (London: Kegan Paul, Trench & Trübner, 1925), p. 50.]
The Scottish physical anthropologist Robert Gayre has written, that in his considered opinion:
"Ancient Egypt, for instance, was essentially a penetration of Caucasoid racial elements into Africa . . . This civilisation grew out of the settlement of Mediterraneans, Armenoids, even Nordics, and Atlantics in North Africa . . ." [R. Gayre of Gayre, Miscellaneous Racial Studies, 1943-1972 (Edinburgh: Armorial, 1972), p. 85.]
When English archaeologist Howard Carter excavated the tomb of Tutankhamen in 1922, he discovered in the Treasury a small wooden sarcophagus. Within it lay a memento of Tutankhamen's beloved grandmother, Queen Tiye: "a curl of her auburn hair." [C. Desroches-Noblecourt, Tutankhamen: Life and Death of a Pharaoh (Harmondsworth: Penguin Books, 1972), p. 65.] (See mummy picture)
Queen Tiye (18th Dynasty), was the daughter of Thuya, a Priestess of the God Amun. Thuya's mummy, which was found in 1905, has long, red-blonde hair. Examinations of Tiye's mummy proved that she bore a striking resemblance to her mother. [B. Adams, Egyptian Mummies (Aylesbury: Shire Publications, 1988), p. 39.] (See mummy picture)
A painting of the mother of Pharaoh Amenhotep IV (18th Dynasty), reveals that she had blonde hair, blue eyes and a rosy complexion. [W. Sieglin, Die blonden Haare der indogermanischen Völker des Altertums (Munich: J. F. Lehmanns Verlag, 1935), p. 132.]
Princess Ranofri, a daughter of Pharaoh Tuthmosis III (18th Dynasty), is depicted as a blonde in a wall painting that was recorded in the 19th century, by the Italian Egyptologist Ippolito Rosellini. [Ibid., p. 132.]
In 1929 archaeologists discovered the mummy of fifty year-old Queen Meryet-Amun (another daughter of Tuthmosis III); the mummy has wavy, light-brown hair. [R. B. Partridge, Faces of Pharaohs (London: Rubicon Press, 1994), p. 91.]
American Egyptologist Donald P. Ryan excavated tomb KV 60, in the Valley of the Kings, during the course of 1989. Inside, he found the mummy of a royal female, which he believes to be the long-lost remains of the great Queen Hatshepsut (18th Dynasty). Ryan describes the mummy as follows:
"The mummy was mostly unwrapped and on its back. Strands of reddish-blond hair lay on the floor beneath the bald head." [Ibid., p. 87.]
Manetho, a Graeco-Egyptian priest who flourished in the 3rd century BC, wrote in his Egyptian History, that the last ruler of the 6th Dynasty was a woman by the name of Queen Nitocris. He has this to say about her:
"There was a queen Nitocris, braver than all the men of her time, the most beautiful of all the women, blonde-haired with rosy cheeks. By her, it is said, the third pyramid was reared, with the aspect of a mountain." [W. G. Waddell, Manetho (London: William Heinemann, 1980), p. 57.]
According to the Graeco-Roman authors Pliny the Elder, Strabo and Diodorus Siculus, the Third Pyramid was built by a woman named Rhodopis. When translated from the original Greek, her name means "rosy-cheeked". [G. A. Wainwright, The Sky-Religion in Egypt (Cambridge: University Press, 1938), p. 42.]
We may also note that a tomb painting recorded by the German Egyptologist C. R. Lepsius in the 1840s, depicts a blonde woman by the name of Hetepheres (circa 5th Dynasty). The German scholar Alexander Scharff, observed that she was described as being a Priestess of the Goddess Neith, a deity who was sacred to the blond-haired Libyans of the Delta region. He goes on to state that her name is precisely the same as that of Queen Hetepheres II, who is also shown as fair-haired, in a painting on the wall of Queen Meresankh III's tomb. He deduced from all of this, that the two women may well have been related, and he suggested that Egypt during the Age of the Pyramids, was dominated by an elite of blonde women. [A. Scharff, "Ein Beitrag zur Chronologie der 4. ägyptischen Dynastie." Orientalistische Literaturzeitung XXXI (1928) pp. 73-81.]
The twentieth prayer of the 141st chapter of the ancient Egyptian Book of the Dead, is dedicated "to the Goddess greatly beloved, with red hair." [E. A. W. Budge, The Book of the Dead (London: Kegan Paul, Trench & Trübner, 1901), p. 430.] In the tomb of Pharaoh Merenptah (19th Dynasty), there are depictions of red-haired goddesses. [N. Reeves & R. H. Wilkinson, The Complete Valley of the Kings (London: Thames & Hudson, 1997), p. 149.]
In the Book of the Dead, the eyes of the god Horus are described as "shining," or "brilliant," whilst another passage refers more explicitly to "Horus of the blue eyes". [Budge, op. cit., pp. 421 & 602.] The rubric to the 140th chapter of said book, states that the amulet known as the "Eye of Horus," (used to ward-off the "Evil Eye"), must always be made from lapis-lazuli, a mineral which is blue in colour. [Ibid., p. 427.] It should be noted that the Goddess Wadjet, who symbolised the Divine Eye of Horus, was represented by a snake (a hooded cobra to be precise), and her name, when translated from the original Egyptian, means "blue-green". [A. F. Alford, The Phoenix Solution (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1998), pp. 266-268.] Interestingly, the ancient Scandanavians claimed that anyone who was blue-eyed (and therefore possessed the power of the Evil Eye), had "a snake in the eye," and blue eyes were frequently compared to the eyes of a serpent. [F. B. Gummere, Germanic Origins (London: David Nutt, 1892), pp. 58, 62.]
In the ancient Pyramid Texts, the Gods are said to have blue and green eyes. [Alford, op. cit., p. 232.] The Graeco-Roman author Diodorus Siculus (I, 12), says that the Egyptians thought the goddess Neith had blue eyes. [C. H. Oldfather, Diodorus of Sicily (London: William Heinemann, 1968), p. 45.]
A text from the mammisi of Isis at Denderah, declares that the goddess was given birth to in the form of a "ruddy woman". [J. G. Griffiths, De Iside et Osiride (Cardiff: University of Wales Press, 1970), p. 451.] Finally, the Greek author Plutarch, in the 22nd chapter of his De Iside et Osiride, states that the Egyptians thought Horus to be fair-skinned, and the god Seth to be of a ruddy complexion. [Ibid., p. 151.]
Yuya-(Joseph II)
Biblical Joseph Egyptian Prime Minister during 1400 BC.
Father of Tiy. Yuya's blonde hair and Caucasian facial struture have been well preserved by the embalming process.
Thuya, Wife of Yuya.
Equally blonde and caucasian. She was the great grandmother of Tutankhamen.
Mother of Tiy
Egyptian Female Pharaoh: Queen Hatshepsut, wife of Pharaoh Thutmosis II. She ruled Egypt after Thutmosis' death in 1520 BC. Her long blonde hair and facial structure has been well preserved by the embalming process of the time
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Paul Karason .
Argyria (ISV from Greek: ἄργυρος argyros silver + -ia) is a condition caused by improper exposure to chemical forms of the element silver, silver dust or silver compounds.:858 The most dramatic symptom of argyria is that the skin becomes blue or bluish-grey colored. Argyria may be found as generalized argyria or local argyria. Argyrosis is the corresponding condition related to the eye. The condition is believed to be permanent, but laser therapy has been used to treat it with satisfactory cosmetic results.
Since at least the early part of the 20th century, doctors have known that silver or silver compounds can cause some areas of the skin and other body tissues to turn gray or blue-gray. Argyria occurs in people who eat or breathe in silver over a long period (several months to many years). A single exposure to a silver compound may also cause silver to be deposited in the skin and in other parts of the body; however, this is not known to be harmful. It is likely that many exposures to silver are necessary to develop argyria. Once argyria develops, it is generally believed to be permanent.
Generalized form of Argyria.Reports of cases of argyria and a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency statement suggest that 1 to 4 grams of silver or a silver compound taken in medication in small doses over several months may cause argyria in some humans. People who work in factories that manufacture silver can also breathe in silver or its compounds. In the past, some of these workers have become argyric. However, the level of silver in the air and the length of exposure that caused argyria in these workers is not known. It is also not known what level of silver causes breathing problems, lung and throat irritation, or stomach pain in people. Studies in rats show that drinking water containing very large amounts of silver (2.6 grams per liter) is likely to be life-threatening.
Argyria that covers the entire body is not seen following skin contact with silver compounds, although the skin may change color where it touches the silver. However, many people who have used skin creams containing silver compounds such as silver nitrate and silver sulfadiazine have not reported health problems from the silver in the medicine. In one animal study, a strong solution of silver nitrate (81 milligrams silver nitrate per liter of water) applied to the skin of guinea pigs for 28 days did not cause the animals to die; however, it did cause the guinea pigs to stop gaining weight normally. It is not known if this would happen to people if they were exposed the same way.
A recent prominent case was that of Stan Jones of Montana, a Libertarian candidate for the United States Senate in 2002 and 2006. Jones acquired argyria through consumption of a home-made silver product that he made due to fears that the Year 2000 problem would make antibiotics unavailable. The peculiar colouration of his skin was featured prominently in media coverage of his unsuccessful campaign, though Jones contends that the best-known photo was "doctored". Jones promised that he was not using his silvery complexion as a gimmick. He continues to promote the use of colloidal silver as a home remedy. He has said that his good health, minus the unusual skin tone, is the result of his use of colloidal silver.
On December 20, 2007 the world press published stories about Paul Karason, a California man whose entire skin gradually turned blue after consuming colloidal silver made by himself with distilled water, salt and silver, and using a silver salve on his face in an attempt to treat problems with his sinus, dermatitis, acid reflux, and other issues.
On 2008, ABC reporters interviewed Paul Karason, 40 year-old who's skin turned blue after he used colloidal silver to ease his ailments. It started a decade ago, when he saw an ad in a new-age magazine promising health and rejuvenation through colloidal silver. Karason sent away for a kit for making colloidal silver -- a home brew of microscopic silver particles suspended in water. For a while, he was drinking at least 10 ounces a day as a cure for arthritis. "I had arthritis in my shoulders so bad I couldn't pull a T-shirt off. And the next thing I knew, it was just gone." he explained the media, but these claims have no basis in science and after a couple of months, his whole skin turned blue. "I kind of hoped it would fade off!" But it didn't fade off. Argyria is permanent.
Source: Wikipedia
..The Man Who Turned Blue
Body painting.
Body painting, or sometimes bodypainting, is a form of body art, considered by some as the most ancient form of art. Unlike tattoo and other forms of body art, body painting is temporary, painted onto the human skin, and lasts for only several hours, or at most (in the case of Mehndi or "henna tattoo") a couple of weeks. Body painting that is limited to the face is known as face painting. Body painting is also referred to as (a form of) temporary tattoos; large scale or full-body painting is more commonly referred to as body painting, while smaller or more detailed work is generally referred to as temporary tattoos.
Huli man from Papua New Guinea. Body painting with clay and other natural pigments existed in most, if not all, tribalist cultures. Often worn during ceremonies, it still survives in this ancient form among the indigenous people of Australia, New Zealand, the Pacific islands and parts of Africa. A semi-permanent form of body painting known as Mehndi, using dyes made of henna (hence also known rather erroneously as "henna tattoo"), was and is still practised in India and the Middle East, especially on brides. Since the late 1990s, Mehndi has become popular amongst young women in the Western world.
Indigenous peoples of South America traditionally use annatto, huito, or wet charcoal to decorate their faces and bodies. Huito is semi-permanent, and it generally takes weeks for this black dye to fade.
Actors and clowns around the world have painted their faces--and sometimes bodies--for centuries, and continue to do so today. More subdued form of face paints for everyday occasions evolved into the cosmetics we know today.
There has been a revival of body painting in the Western society since the 1960s, in part prompted by the liberalization of social mores regarding nudity. Even today there is a constant debate about the legitimacy of body painting as an art form. The current modern revival could be said to date back to the 1933 World's Fair in Chicago where Max Factor and his model were arrested for causing a public disturbance when he bodypainted her with his new make-up formulated for Hollywood films.
Body art today evolves to the works more directed towards personal mythologies, as Jana Sterbak, Rebecca Horn, Youri Messen-Jaschin or Javier Perez.
Body painting is not always large pieces on fully nude bodies, but can involve smaller pieces on displayed areas of otherwise clothed bodies.
Body painting led to a minor alternative art movement in the 1950s and 1960s, which involved covering a model in paint and then having the model touch or roll on a canvas or other medium to transfer the paint. French artist Yves Klein is perhaps the most famous for this, with his series of paintings 'Anthropometries'. The effect produced by this technique creates an image-transfer from the model's body to the medium. This includes all the curves of the model's body (typically female) being reflected in the outline of the image. This technique was not necessarily monotone; multiple colors on different body parts sometimes produced interesting effects.
Joanne Gair is a leading body paint artist whose work appeared for the tenth consecutive year in the 2008 Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue. She burst into prominence with a August 1992 Vanity Fair Demi's Birthday Suit cover of Demi Moore. Her Disappearing Model was part of the highest rated episode of Ripley's Believe It or Not!.
Body painting is commonly used as a method of gaining attention in political protests, for instance those by PETA against Burberry.
Modern face and body paints are made according to stringent guidelines, meaning these are non-toxic, usually non-allergenic, and can easily be washed away. These are either applied with hands, paint brush, and natural sea sponge, or alternatively with an airbrush. Contrary to the popular myth perpetuated by the James Bond film Goldfinger, a person is not asphyxiated if their whole body is painted, although wearing body paint for a prolonged period may cause heat stroke by inhibiting perspiration. Liquid latex may also be used as body paint and allows for better perspiration, however care should be taken to avoid the painful removal of hair when the latex is pulled off.
As for Mehndi, natural brown henna dyes are safe to use; however, synthetic black dyes containing PPD can cause serious skin allergies, and should be avoided due to the substantial risk of serious injury. Jagua is a dark indigo plant based dye that is safe to use on the skin and is approved for cosmetic use in the EU.
Whatever the type of body paint (the same is true for cosmetics), should the skin show any sign of allergy, one should immediately cease using it. Moreover, it should not be applied onto open wounds, nor should it be applied too close to the eyes. It is not advisable to use paints or products which have not been formulated for use on the body as these can result in serious allergic reactions.
Manufacturers of widely available professional body and face paint include: Kryolan, Mehron, Snazaroo, Wolfe Face Art & FX, Ben Nye and Fardel.
Source: Wikipedia
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..The signs of the Zodiac
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Tooth jewelry.
In hip hop culture, a grill (also front or golds) is a type of jewelry worn over the teeth. Grills are made of metal and are generally removable. They began to be worn by hip hop artists in the early 1980s, but they became widely popular during the mid-2000s due to the rise of Dirty South rap. Though grills are fitted to the tooth impression of the wearer, whether they are safe for long-term wear is unknown.
In hip hop culture, a grill (also front or golds) is a type of jewelry worn over the teeth. Grills are made of metal and are generally removable. They began to be worn by hip hop artists in the early 1980s, but they became widely popular during the mid-2000s due to the rise of Dirty South rap. Though grills are fitted to the tooth impression of the wearer, whether they are safe for long-term wear is unknown.
Grills are made of metal (often silver, gold, or platinum) that is sometimes inlaid with precious stones; they are generally removable, though some may be permanently attached to the teeth. Grills can cost anywhere from fifty dollars to thousands of dollars, depending on the materials used and the number of teeth covered.
Grills are most often worn by 18- to 35-year-old urban male hip-hop listeners, and at least one commentator has argued that grills will never become mainstream.However, grills are worn by both men and women of all races, at least to some extent, as well as by celebrities far from hip-hop culture like Marilyn Manson or Travis Barker of Blink-182.
The sparkling "dental works" of some hip-hop stars aren't exactly new. High skilled dentistry allowed Native Americans to add sparks to their teeth as far back as 2,500 years ago, as new research shows .
Ancient peoples of southern North America went to their local "tooth doctor"—among the earliest known—to beautify their grinders with notches, grooves, and semiprecious gems, according to a recent analysis of thousands of teeth examined from collections in Mexico.
Scientists don't know the origin of most of the teeth in the collections, which belonged to people living throughout the region, called Mesoamerica, before the Spanish conquests of the 1500s.
But it's clear that people—mostly men—from nearly all walks of life opted for the look, according to José Concepción Jiménez, an anthropologist at the institute, which recently made the findings public .
He stated that "They were not marks of social class" but instead meant for pure decoration .
In fact, the royals of the day—such as the Red Queen, a Maya mummy found in a temple at Palenque in what is now Mexico—don't have teeth decorations, Jiménez said.
Other evidence of early Mesoamerican dentistry—including a person who had received a ceremonial denture—has also been found.
Skilled Dentists
The early dentists used a drill-like device with a hard stone such as obsidian, which is capable of puncturing bone.
"It's possible some type of ( Plant based ) anesthetic was applied prior to drilling to blunt any pain," according to Jiménez .
The ornamental stones—including jade—were attached with an adhesive made out of natural resins, such as plant sap, which was mixed with other chemicals and crushed bones, still according to Jiménez .
The dentists likely had a sophisticated knowledge of tooth anatomy, Jiménez further mentioned. For example, they knew how to drill into teeth without hitting the pulp inside, he said.
"They didn't want to generate an infection or provoke the loss of a tooth or break a tooth."
..The oldest teeth jewelry
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Human sacrifice in ancient South - America
Aztec religion is one of the most widely documented pre-Hispanic cultures. Diego Durán in the Book of the Gods and Rites wrote about the religious practices devoted to the water gods, Tlaloc and Chalchiuhtlicue, and a very important part of their annual ritual included the sacrifice of infants and young children.
According to Bernardino de Sahagún, the Aztecs believed that, if sacrifices were not given to Tlaloc, the rain would not come and their crops would not grow. Tlaloc required the tears of the young so their tears would wet the earth. As a result, priests made children cry before the infanticidal ritual sacrifice, sometimes by tearing off their nails.
Fernando de Alva Cortés Ixtlilxochitl, an Aztec descendant and the author of the Codex Ixtlilxochitl, claimed that one in five children of the Mexica subjects was killed annually. These high figures have not been confirmed by historians. Hernán Cortés describes an event in his Archaeologists have found the remains of 42 children sacrified to Tlaloc (and a few to Ehecátl Quetzalcóatl) in the offerings of the Great Pyramid of Tenochtitlan.
In Xochimilco, the remains of a three-to-four-year-old boy were found. The skull was broken and the bones had an orange/yellowish cast, a vitreous texture, and porous and compacted tissue. Aztecs have been known to boil down remains of some sacrificed victims to remove the flesh and place the skull in the tzompantli. Archaeologists concluded that the skull was boiled and that it cracked due to the ebullition of the brain mass. Photographs of the skull have been published in specialized journals.
Capacocha was the Inca practice of human sacrifice, mainly using children. The Incas performed child sacrifices during or after important events, such as the death of the Sapa Inca (emperor) or during a famine. As sacrificial victims, they selected children who were physically perfect, because these were the best they could give their gods. They dressed the children in fine clothing and jewelry and escorted them to Cuzco to meet the emperor where a feast was held in their honor. Then, high priests took the victims to high mountaintops for sacrifice. They gave the children an intoxicating drink to minimize pain, fear, and resistance, then killed them by strangulation, by a blow to the head or by leaving them to lose consciousness in the extreme cold and die of exposure. Early colonial Spanish missionaries wrote about this practice but only recently have archaeologists such as Johan Reinhard begun to find the bodies of these victims on Andean mountaintops, naturally mummified by the dry conditions found in these environments.
Incan children as young as 6 were “fattened up” prior to their sacrificial deaths, a new study shows.
Researchers made the startling discovery by sampling the hair of frozen child mummies found high in the Andes mountains, near the summit of Mount Llullaillaco—a 22,100-foot (6,739-meter) active volcano on the border of Argentina and Chile.
"By examining hair samples from these unfortunate children, a chilling story has started to emerge of how the children were 'fattened up' for sacrifice," says Andrew Wilson, an archaeologist at the University of Bradford in the U.K.
Wilson and his colleagues analyzed hair samples from four child mummies, including a 15-year-old girl known as the "Llullaillaco Maiden" and 7-year-old known as the "Llullaillaco Boy."
Based on measuring natural radioactive isotopes in the hair samples, the archaeologists found that the kids were normally fed diets of "common" vegetables such as potatoes, suggesting that they came from a peasant background. A year before their intentional demise, however, the isotopes showed that their diets were enriched with "elite" food like maize and dried llama meat.
"Given the surprising change in their diets, and the symbolic cutting of their hair, it appears that various events were staged in which the status of the children was raised," Wilson said. "In effect, their countdown to sacrifice had begun some considerable time prior to death."
How the children perished remains a mystery, but Wilson and his team think they were led into the mountains about three to four months before dying. During this time, the researchers found maize beer and coca leaf molecules in the mummies' hair samples.
"It looks to us as though the children were led up to the summit shrine in the culmination of a year-long rite, drugged and then left to succumb to exposure," said Timothy Taylor, also an archaeologist at the University of Bradford. He noted that while the deaths may seem grim, they occurred more than 500 years ago when Incan rulers controlled small mountain communities. The Llullaillaco Boy, however, probably met the most terrifying end: His clothes were covered in diarrhea and vomit, in which archeologists found traces of a hallucinogenic drug called achiote. But he probably didn't perish from the drug—he was bound in a cloth wrapping drawn so tight that his ribs were crushed and his pelvis dislocated, indicating he may have suffocated to death.
Researchers at an archeological site in northern Peru have made an unusually large discovery of nearly three dozen people sacrificed some 600 years ago by the Incan civilization.
The bodies, some of which show signs of having been cut along their necks and collarbones, were otherwise found in good condition, said Carlos Webster, who is leading excavations at the Chotuna-Chornancap camp.
The sprawling 235-acre (95-hectare) archeological site is 12 miles outside the coastal city of Chiclayo, near the ancient tomb of Sipan, which was one of the great finds of the last century. The sacrifices were made just decades before Spanish explorers arrived in what is now Peru.
Although archeologists regularly find evidence of human sacrifice from Incan and pre-Incan cultures, it is rare to find the remains of 33 people in one place, researchers said.
Scientists say human sacrifice was common within the Incan culture, which flourished immediately before the arrival of the Spanish in what is now parts of Peru, Chile and Ecuador between 1400 and the mid-1500s.
"Most of the remains belong to young women, around 15 years of age. One of them appears to have been pregnant because in her abdomen, the collarbone of a fetus, probably around 4 months, was found," Webster said of the latest find, made over the past year and a half.
"The majority (of the bodies) are in good condition -- skin tissues and hair have been preserved. They were found in a dry area more than 7 feet underground," he said.
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