When the Huns swept into Europe in the 5th century, the Romans described their fierce new adversaries as “monstrous.
When the Huns swept into Europe in the 5th century, the Romans described their fierce new adversaries as “monstrous. ” Historians used to attribute this ungenerous description to the fact that Romans had never before seen Asiatic people. But now many believe it may have been because of the Huns’ weirdly shaped heads. Archeological evidence reveals that the Huns practiced a type of head binding to cause artificial cranial deformation. Essentially, Huns would tightly bind the heads of children, compressing their skulls between two pieces of wood so that their heads grew into an artificially elongated shape. Historians’ best guess is that the Huns chang ed the shape of their heads in order to distinguish themselves physically from other tribes, or to denote aristocracy. Or maybe they just thought it looked cool. Whatever the reason, the sight of Huns struck fear into the hearts of their enemies/victims, and their elongated heads must have contributed to that. The images are Alp...