Artificial cranial deformation
In 1925, while plowing a field in the southern Australian state of Victoria, a landowner unearthed a human skull of obviously unusual proportions. Initially, researchers were convinced that a previously undiscovered link in the human evolutionary chain had been discovered. This theory, however, was soon discredited. The archaeological record was being steadily populated by other discoveries around the world, in particular in Africa, and this skull simply did not conform to what was currently known. It became clear that Australia was not the cradle of mankind, but Africa, and after a while the Australian skull was archived as a curiosity, and largely forgotten. Then, in 1948, a second, similar specimen was unearthed, and then a third, and the debate was once again revived.
To cut a long story short, what was eventually concluded was that some sort of deliberate modification of the skull had taken place to produce these unusual proportions. Th physiology of this is simply that infant skulls are soft and loosely joined in order to accommodated uneven growth. Fusion does not begin to occur until after one year birth, so modifying the shape of the skull soon after birth is quite easy
In the meanwhile, similarly perplexing finds were discovered in other parts of the world, and certain patterns began to emerge. The elongation of the skull appears to have been a mark of nobility, while a skull flattened at forehead was a sign of a humbler lineage. As anthropologists and explorers began to penetrate the wilds of Papua New Guinea, for the first time saw the practice at work, and explanation in this case appears to have been that the modification of an infant’s skull would somehow enhance its intelligence.
The begged question then become how was this effect achieved, and the answer again is simply in the pliability of an infant’s skull. Even the practice of carrying a child on the mother’s back, by a simple fact of gravity, can flatten the top of an infant’s skull, so it is certainly easy to imagine how it could be achieved with creative binding. To accomplish the flattening effect of the forehead, a flat piece of wood was added.
It might surprise readers to know that cranial molding still goes on today where you would least expect it. In facts born with congenital skull deformations where helmets to produce the same basic effect, although in most cases the processes is intended to rectify a deformation, not to create one.