Headless Bodies and Migrating Peoples (ca. 800 BC)
In 2003, archaeologists working in the Pacific islands of Vanuatu located the region’s oldest cemetery, which contained a rather surprising sight: although the bodies had been carefully placed in their graves 3,000 years ago… the skulls of 70 people were missing!
The earliest known inhabitants of the Pacific islands were the Lapita people, and though the burials in this cemetery date to their occupation of the islands, many of the bodies and heads found here belonged to individuals from completely different corners of the Pacific. Although the Lapita people settled on Vanuatu and in Polynesia, the various groups of Lapita differed genetically. The reasons for this have yet to be explained by archaeologists, and it is hoped that the cemetery on Vanuatu may provide valuable genetic evidence for the settlement patterns of people in the ancient Pacific.
As for the missing skulls, it is thought that the bodies were originally buried with their skulls attached, but were retrieved after the flesh had decayed. Many ancient cultures are known to have kept ancestral skulls in shrines or high-traffic areas of the home, in order to pay honor to the dead.
Oddly enough, one burial of an elderly man had three skulls placed on his chest – it is possible that they were his descendants, though perhaps not surprisingly, the man himself was headless.
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