Don't fancy drinking from one of these.
http://uk.news.yahoo.com/21/20110217/tuk-ancient-britons-used-skulls-as-cups-6323e80.html
http://uk.news.yahoo.com/21/20110217/tuk-ancient-britons-used-skulls-as-cups-6323e80.html
Cranium Kuksa
- Thread starter Bushwhacker
- Start date
I saw this on BBC news yesterday - with the presenters suitably horrified at the prospect.
However, to our early ancestors, skull cups would have had a number of things in their favour...
Very little in the way of shaping needed to form a liquid proof vessel - certainly at a time when curved blades would have been un-heard-of. The skulls of our brother animals would have been utilised in either religious or hunting ceremonies - at the very least as a form of camouflage.
It may have been an act of the utmost repect to "drink in" the knowledge and experience of your former elders, a means of ritually perparing for the hunt / the winter / the birth - etc.
Who are we to judge them on their habits and beliefs.
Ogri the trog
However, to our early ancestors, skull cups would have had a number of things in their favour...
Very little in the way of shaping needed to form a liquid proof vessel - certainly at a time when curved blades would have been un-heard-of. The skulls of our brother animals would have been utilised in either religious or hunting ceremonies - at the very least as a form of camouflage.
It may have been an act of the utmost repect to "drink in" the knowledge and experience of your former elders, a means of ritually perparing for the hunt / the winter / the birth - etc.
Who are we to judge them on their habits and beliefs.
Ogri the trog
Can't see the link (on my iPhone right now), but do they talk about the Swedish salutation "skål!" ?
Skål means bowl in Swedish as in raise your bowl, and the word Skål is very close to our skull. There is a legend / myth that says that the Vikings would toast their victories from the skulls of their defeated enemies.
(forgive me if I am unknowingly repeating what's in the link.
Skål means bowl in Swedish as in raise your bowl, and the word Skål is very close to our skull. There is a legend / myth that says that the Vikings would toast their victories from the skulls of their defeated enemies.
(forgive me if I am unknowingly repeating what's in the link.
There may also have been great symbolic status to be gained by drinking from the skull(s) of one's enemies. Kitchener, apparently, considered making a drinking cup from the Mahdi's skull.
St Teilo (sp?) has his skull in Cardiff Cathedral (I think that is right) - converted into a chalice...
It was in Oz for a while but has been returned by the "heriditry keeper"...
Said saint apears to have had 2 heads according to legend..... so that more than one church could display his sku;ll after he died!
It was in Oz for a while but has been returned by the "heriditry keeper"...
Said saint apears to have had 2 heads according to legend..... so that more than one church could display his sku;ll after he died!
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