Looking sometimes at ancient images and reading books  or even listening to Egyptologists seems to suggest that ancient Egyptians had what is mentioned as elongated heads.


Is there any evidence that this is factual or is it just a story to be taken with a pinch of salt.





Dirk

I thought an unusually elongated head shape was essentially restricted to just the Pharaoh Akhenaten and his immediate family: his Great Royal Wife Nefertiti, all of their six daughters, and his son Tutankhamun. Numerous statues and reliefs indicate conspicuous head elongation in all. This has often been attributed to an artistic convention but it does now seem to have been a physical effect evident in the skulls of several mummies (although it is by no means certain who these remains actually were).

Below are the profile and frontal images of "Younger Lady" mummy (KV35) identified by some as Nefertiti. The images clearly show damage attributed to ancient tomb robbers (right arm torn from body, chest caved in). The front view also shows extensive injury to the left cheek/jaw, which some have interpreted as a pre-mortem cause of death.



Nevertheless the profile not only shows conspicuous elongation but also a flat, even slightly concave area on the top which might well suggest deliberate head-binding, ie artificially deforming the skull when infant with tight cloth or rope bindings or between flat boards. Head-binding as a cultural practice crops up all over the world and at different times but it does not seem to have been widespread in ancient Egypt, if at all, outside of these few possible individuals. Alternatively, bearing in mind that Akhenaten and Nefertiti may well have been incestuously related, the effect may have been congenital. Either way it does seem to be true that for a couple of generations pharaoh's immediate family did have conspicuously elongated heads.

Yes MM I thought also to seek in the direction of head binding, but as you say there can be other explanations too...incest where one characteristic is double emphasised by two times the same characteristic?...

Kind regards, Paul.