The “Princess” with the elongated skull, a piece in the patrimony of the Buzau County Museum, recently introduced in the MuseumBus tour, represents one of the evidences of the skull deformation process in Romania, in the Gheraseni area, the vestige enjoying a special interest from visitors.

According to the County Museum’s specialists, among all the historical stories, the diadem from Gheraseni, the tomb of the princess who wore it, as well as the process of skull deformation in Hunnic peoples are of particular interest.

“The skull was discovered in Gheraseni, a few kilometres from Buzau county, a tomb of a princess who wore a decorative element on her head, a diadem that is part of the County Museum’s patrimony and a piece in the national treasury category, a diadem that, over time, has been the subject of many studies and exhibitions both nationally and internationally. The fascination of this discovery, among other things, lies in the fact that, being about the Hunnic population, 5th century AD, these populations have elongated skulls, skulls that were thus obtained as a result of applying a method of shaping from an early age and which gave the elongated skull shape to the members of this population. Since the development period, from early infancy, various ligatures were applied to the skull, which grew in this elongated shape, a custom that we still find today in certain populations. Similar methods can be found in Africa in those women who elongate their necks with rings, that custom of stretching their earlobes with rings,” Daniel Costache, director of the Buzau County Museum, told AGERPRES.

The procedure of elongating the skulls is placed by specialists in close connection with the social status of the people to whom it was applied, and the diadem discovered would confirm that only those in dominant positions were able to wear such ornaments.

In the tomb of the noble Hun from Gheraseni a mirror was also deposited, representing a funerary motif of symbolic importance.

“The diadem in Gheraseni is associated with the steppe practice of artificial skull deformation. It is one of the pieces of clothing specific to the noble ‘Hunnic woman’. A tin mirror with a central ear was also placed in the tomb of the deceased member of the elite of the equestrian nomadic Huns from Gheraseni. The deposition of mirrors in tombs, attested in the 2nd-3rd century Sarmatic area of the Lower Danube basin, was practically unknown in the funerary ritual of the Santana de Mures culture. The practice of placing mirrors in the tombs reappeared during the first half of the 5th century when it became an important element of the funerary ritual, especially in the Middle Danube Basin. These objects may have served the purpose of mirroring but, more likely, they had a symbolic function. The pattern of concentric and radial ribs on the obverse of the mirror from Gheraseni probably suggests the sun, implicitly life, and the smooth and polished reverse, the moon, and due to its pale color was associated with the cloud, or death. The skull of the deceased Hun Alan from Gheraseni was artificially deformed. The artificial deformation of the skull is often documented in the Sarmatian funerary ritual of the 2nd-3rd centuries in Moldavia or Muntenia,” shows the book “Huns and Hunnic Goths at Lower Danube”, in the library of the County Museum.

A replica of the deformed skull was part of the collection of exhibits presented to the public through the mobile museum. At the same time, those who want to learn about the Gheraseni diadem, the tomb of the princess who lived in the Buzau area about 1,600 years ago, or about the process and significance of skull deformation in the Huns, can visit the museum collections to talk to specialists and see the original objects.