This past weekend we missioned off to Oxford to see Mr&Mrs Intellectual in thier new home/town. It has taken some time to get up there but we finally did and had quite a chill time. My highlight was the real shrunken heads at the museum where Mrs I works. It was a fasinating collection of stuff that was pretty much just collected by some guy and then a museum was made for the collection (The Pitt Rivers). There we also tons of pottery from all overs and some 5000 year old pots from Egypt (her speciality as it is pre dynastic - i.e. Pre writing and pharohs!)
I'm still loving that I've now seen the shrunken heads though. Basically the dead enemy is taken and head chopped off, the skull removed and then replaced with hot sand and boiled. So below are more pictures I took if your keen to have a gander. I was fasinated that only the skin shrinks and other things like all the hairs dont so they have really long hair, dense eyelashes and are a little furry from the remaining facial hair. There were also a few monkey heads that they had done the same thing with. If it creeps you out then maybe dont read further....
*excuse the bad lighting in the photos, the place is kept in very low light conditions to preserve the collection....
Oh yes and here is an actual Egyptian mummy with the sarcohgus (sp?) lid off!
