Line drawing from catalog photos. Archival ink on paper. Credit: Grace D. Eriksen in Scaffidi 2025

In a recent study, Dr. Beth Scaffidi analyzed the images of a unique trophy head from southern Peru. The study diagnosed the individual as having had a cleft lip/palate (CLP), making him the first case of an Andean trophy head and one of only six other known human remains from the region with this malformation.

The study is published in the journal Ñawpa Pacha.

Background on trophy heads

Trophy heads are the remains of decapitated individuals that have been processed for conservation, display, and transportation. In the Andes, the practice of collecting trophy heads spans millennia, with the heads often belonging to fallen enemies or revered ancestors.

Centuries after their creation, looters, collectors, and purveyors of medical curiosities acquired these heads for museums and private collections. In modern Peru, these trophy heads are often proudly displayed in museums, schools, and various institutions.

The trophy head analyzed by Dr. Scaffidi was first noted by the author in a 2021 catalog from the Musée d’Art Moderne et Contemporain of Saint-Etienne, France. According to the catalog, the head originated in "Ocucace," which presumably referred to the Hacienda Ocucaje in Paracas, Department of Ica, Peru. It has been imported by Pierre Langlois and has been on display at the Musée de Grenoble in France since 2004.

The head and L-shaped mouth measured 44 × 16 × 21 cm. A golden waxy patina is evident on the head’s skin.

Dr. Scaffidi elaborates, "The trophy head appeared to have had a preservative applied that made the skin glassy, rigid, and cracked, instead of the sueded texture most trophy heads found in the desert have.

"I cannot tell without chemical testing whether this was a preservative applied to cure the skin in ancient times or whether this was a preservative applied by the various collectors and museums that held it…The Paracas area does have tar pits, and this could have been applied as a preservative, but there is no other evidence (to the best of my knowledge) for using tar in mortuary ritual."

Additionally, the individual wore large, round copper earrings. The link likely indicates that the individual hailed from the southern Peruvian coast during the height of trophy head collecting, around 300 BC to 750 CE.

"Direct osteological examination is needed to verify sex and age-at-death, but I suspect that the well-deserved facial and muscle tissues would obscure observations of key cranial features," explains Dr. Scaffidi.

The most striking feature of the individual was his CLP.

Cleft lips and ancient Peruvian society

A cleft lip (orofacial cleft) is a common congenital defect. It occurs when the maxilla (upper jaw) and the nasal cavities fail to fully fuse to the palate during fetal development. The deformity can cause various health issues, including respiratory difficulties, hearing, and speech problems.

In many societies, including ancient Western and some Native American societies, this marked the individual as "other," leading to these individuals being shunned if they survived infancy.

However, some evidence indicates that individuals born with a cleft lip in Peruvian society may have been given elite or priestly roles. A total of 30 vessels have been recovered from Peruvian contexts showing males suspected to have cleft lips adorned in elite garb, including jewelry and head wrappings, or engaged in shamanic or medical activities.

Similarly, Roman-Catholic priest Father Blas Valera (1544–1597) wrote that Peruvian individuals born with this malformation were often given low-level priestly positions. Meanwhile, the Moche (a pre-Incan civilization) believed that those with congenital facial malformations were protected from supernatural harm.

Given the copper earrings worn by the trophy head individual, it is possible he was afforded a similar special status, though whether this was a status received in life or death is uncertain.

Future research and repatriation

Future research may provide more insights, explains Dr. Scaffidi, " …Minimally-destructive isotopic analysis of hair, bone, and teeth formed at various ages could give us clarity on whether this individual’s dietary and residence history was similar to other individuals in the population or different."

Dr. Scaffidi also addresses repatriation efforts and highlights some key points: "I would like for the public to know that, while repatriation to descendant communities is a goal all archaeologists and bioarchaeologists share, there are many obstacles to meaningfully returning skeletal remains.

"The first issue is that museums and institutions holding human remains have to first inventory and publish their holdings so descendants or institutional stakeholders can locate skeletal individuals for return. This is difficult as individuals are often commingled with other individuals over time (e.g., two left forearms in the box for one individual), and documentation can be missing or insufficient to verify the country of provenience.

"There is often little or no funding available for the critical work of inventorying legacy collections... Granting agencies are much more interested in supporting new excavations as opposed to funding studies and inventories of legacy human remains, assuming they have all been thoroughly studied. However, many skeletons have not yet been inventoried or studied at all, and those steps are pre-requisites to any repatriation efforts.

"Finally, even after skeletons are inventoried, it can be difficult to verify the country or region of provenience where documentation is missing, or to identify the appropriate descendant community…"

As this article shows, reviewing museum catalogs and art market or auction reports provides another productive, if unexpected, avenue—this individual showed up in a modern art exhibit of objects, even though it is, in fact, a human skeletal individual. This demonstrates how the human body can flux back and forth between beloved dead ancestor and object depending on the cultural context of the viewer.

Written for you by our author Sandee Oster, edited by Sadie Harley, and fact-checked and reviewed by Robert Egan—this article is the result of careful human work. We rely on readers like you to keep independent science journalism alive. If this reporting matters to you, please consider a donation (especially monthly). You’ll get an ad-free account as a thank-you.

More information: Beth K. Scaffidi, Celebrating Cleft Lip? Osteological and Artistic Evidence of Lip Deformity in a Trophy Head Individual from Southern Peru, Ñawpa Pacha (2025). DOI: 10.1080/00776297.2025.2565062

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Citation: First Andean trophy head with cleft lip/palate identified from southern Peru (2025, December 8) retrieved 8 December 2025 from https://phys.org/news/2025-12-andean-trophy-cleft-lippalate-southern.html

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