Scalping. Scalping is the act of cutting or tearing a part of the human scalp, with hair attached, from the head, and generally occurred in warfare with the scalp being a trophy.
Scalp-taking is considered part of the broader cultural practice of the taking and display of human body parts as trophies, and may have developed as an alternative to the taking of human heads, for scalps were easier to take, transport, and preserve for subsequent display. Scalping independently developed in various cultures in both the Old and New Worlds.
One of the earliest examples of scalping dates back to the mesolithic period, found at a hunter-gatherer cemetery in Sweden. Several human remains from the stone-age Ertebølle culture in Denmark show evidence of scalping.
A man found in a grave in the Alvastra pile-dwelling in Sweden had been scalped approximately 5,000 years ago. Georg Frederici noted that Herodotus provided the only clear and satisfactory portrayal of a scalping people in the old world in his description of the Scythians, a nomadic people then located to the north and west of the Black Sea.
Herodotus related that Scythian warriors would behead the enemies they defeated in battle and present the heads to their king to claim their share of the plunder. Then, the warrior would skin the head by making a circular cut round the ears and shaking out the skull; he then scrapes the flesh off the sk
Scalp-taking is considered part of the broader cultural practice of the taking and display of human body parts as trophies, and may have developed as an alternative to the taking of human heads, for scalps were easier to take, transport, and preserve for subsequent display. Scalping independently developed in various cultures in both the Old and New Worlds.
One of the earliest examples of scalping dates back to the mesolithic period, found at a hunter-gatherer cemetery in Sweden. Several human remains from the stone-age Ertebølle culture in Denmark show evidence of scalping.
A man found in a grave in the Alvastra pile-dwelling in Sweden had been scalped approximately 5,000 years ago. Georg Frederici noted that Herodotus provided the only clear and satisfactory portrayal of a scalping people in the old world in his description of the Scythians, a nomadic people then located to the north and west of the Black Sea.
Herodotus related that Scythian warriors would behead the enemies they defeated in battle and present the heads to their king to claim their share of the plunder. Then, the warrior would skin the head by making a circular cut round the ears and shaking out the skull; he then scrapes the flesh off the sk
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