East Asians may have been reshaping their skulls 12,000 years ago

Fossils expand the known distribution of the ancient practice beyond Europe and Central Asia

elongated skull from China

STRETCH MARKS  Oddly shaped human skulls discovered in northeastern China, including this approximately 6,000-year-old example from a child, point to millennia of intentional cranial reshaping in East Asia, researchers say.

Q. Wang

Ancient tombs in China have produced what may be some of the oldest known human skulls to be intentionally reshaped.