“International” Shrunken Head From Ecuador Returns Home
A ritualistic shrunken head from Ecuador that was made from the skull of a warrior in the tribal Amazon region found its way to a US museum and it has now been studied and recreated in 3D. The findings of a new study have determined that the shrunken head from Ecuador had served as a prop in a 1979 movie, but finally, the artifact has been returned to its country of origin.
“Shrunken heads” is the collective term referring to specially prepared severed human heads that served as war trophies and in rituals in ancient Ecuador and Peru, where they were an important part of the indigenous economy.
Shrunken Head Displayed in Georgia Was Returned to Ecuador
Researchers at Mercer University in Macon, Ga., authenticated the head, which was brought to the United States by a professor decades ago, and turned it over to Ecuadorean officials in 2019.
Bought in Ecuador in the 1940s by a future biology professor, the shrunken head, called a tsantsa, had been alternately displayed and stored at Mercer University for decades.Credit. Adam Kiefer/Mercer University
No bigger than a fist, the shrunken head had nonetheless become a major headache.
The head, a mummified Amazonian war trophy called a tsantsa, had been in the possession of Mercer University in Macon, Ga., for decades. Over that time, it was puzzled over by professors, used as a prop in a John Huston comedy and displayed in a university museum. And in 2019, it was returned to Ecuadorean officials but only after it was authenticated with a 33-item checklist, according to an article published this week by Mercer researchers.
Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images
Researchers at a Georgia University have authenticated a shrunken head that has been on display for decades.
The tsantsa, as it s known in Amazonian languages, was also featured in the 1979 film Wise Blood.
Researchers spent years trying to authenticate the artifact so it can be sent back to Ecuador.
A shrunken head artifact that has been on display for decades at a Georgia university and was featured as a prop in the 1979 John Huston film Wise Blood, has been authenticated as a real human head and will be returned to Ecuador, the country from where it originates.
Tsantsas are usually referred to as shrunken heads, and often represented ceremonial and cultural value to certain Indigenous groups of Ecuador and Peru. In 1942.