Abstract
An intentionally modified head is a visually distinctive sign of group identity. In the Migration Period of Europe (4th– 7th century AD) the practice of intentional cranial modification was common among several nomadic groups, but was strongly associated with the Huns from the Carpathian Basin in Hungary, where modified crania are abundant in archaeological sites. The frequency of modified crania increased substantially in the Mtskheta region of Georgia in this time period, but there are no records that Huns settled here. We compare the Migration Period modified skulls from Georgia with those from Hungary to test the hypothesis that the Huns were responsible for cranial modification in Georgia. We use extended eigenshape analysis to quantify cranial outlines, enabling a discriminant analysis to assess group separation and identify morphological differences. Twenty-one intentionally modified skulls from Georgia are compared with sixteen from Hungary, using nineteen unmodified crania from a modern population as a comparative baseline. Results indicate that modified crania can be differentiated from modern unmodified crania with 100% accuracy. The Hungarian and Georgian crania show some overlap in shape, but can be classified with 81% accuracy. Shape gradations along the main eigenvectors indicate that the Hungarian crania show little variation in cranial shape, in accordance with a two-bandage binding technique, whereas the Georgian crania had a wider range of variation, fitting with a diversity of binding styles. As modification style is a strong signifier of social identity, our results indicate weak Hunnic influence on cranial modification in Georgia and are equivocal about the presence of Huns in Georgia. We suggest instead that other nomadic groups such as Alans and Sarmatians living in this region were responsible for modified crania in Georgia.
Highlights
Intentional cranial modification is a process whereby the head of an infant is purposefully moulded by applying external pressure to achieve a desired shape
The purpose of this paper is to examine the social significance of intentional cranial modification in the Mtskheta region of the Republic of Georgia, where there was a dramatic increase in the practice of modification during the Migration Period paralleling that seen among Eurasian nomads under the influence of Huns
Using extended eigenshape analysis in this study we found differences between the annular styles of modification utilized in Hungary and Georgia
Summary
Intentional cranial modification is a process whereby the head of an infant is purposefully moulded by applying external pressure to achieve a desired shape. Parents or carers start the PLOS ONE | DOI:10.1371/journal.pone.0171064. Huns and modified crania in Georgia process as soon as an infant is born and continue it for the first three or four years of life while the cranial bones are still malleable. Once the bones have ossified the cranial vault assumes the intended shape and it is irreversibly modified. As a cultural practice intentional cranial modification was a worldwide phenomenon [1,2,3]. With independent occurrences spanning over ten millennia the motives for modification may have varied
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