“Racial Research” to be done Through 1,000 Skulls

A two year study has been launched by Germany to know the origins of more than 1,000 human skulls. These are mostly from Rwanda and brought to Europe during the colonial period for racial “scientific” research. It has been recognized as one of the crucial step to understand the skull’s origin.

Hermann Parzinger who is the head of the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation is the leader of the project. He said that they are now looking at the circumstances surrounding the origins of these skulls and then they will decide together with the origin countries about appropriate ways to resolve the issues. Around 1907-08, the skulls were shipped to Germany. It was done by expedition forces for the anthropologist Felix von Luschan who studied human development.

Due to the two world wars the collection moved into deep storage. Skulls were in very poor condition and years were spent to clean them, to put fragments together, to build up an inventory and to sort them geographically.

By: Bhavna Sharma

Content: www.theguardian.com