Mummified head

Some Amazonian peoples have developed extraordinary techniques of mummification. Human or animal heads, shrunken or not, were preserved for years, despite the hot, humid climate of the forests. Many of them can still be seen in museums all over the world, since they aroused great scientific and museological interest, especially in the nineteenth century. The Jivaro, from the Ecuadorian Amazon, after removing the skull from the skin, leaving the hair, made the skin shrink without losing its physiognomy, producing some of the most extraordinary mummification known. The famous heads shrunk by the so-called "people of the waterfall" were prepared in complex rituals and had a deep spiritual meaning.