Ancient Elites Mutilated Their Faces Says Iroungou Cave Study

The new 
research paper , published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of Antiquity Publications, explains that around 28 people were found buried with “hundreds of valuable metal items.” The authors wrote that the wealth and size of the grave indicated that these remains were not a random section of a community, but rather, that they were “important individuals and their  sacrificed retainers .” The paper says that included in this artifact collection were: “486 iron and 26 copper objects, 127 Atlantic marine shells (15 of them being pierced), and 39 pierced  carnivore teeth .”
Deceased Elites Who Had Changed Their Appearance In Life
At least 24 adults (over 15 years old) were identified, and the repetition of intentionally removed upper teeth caused “highly visible changes in the facial characteristics,” which the paper explains might have acted “as a strong ethnic marker” or group identity, meaning the people shared  common beliefs .

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