How a ceremonial shrunken head, held by a US university for decades, was finally returned to Ecuador
A newly published research paper explains the authentication and repatriation process for a tsantsa once housed in Mercer University’s natural history collection.
Researchers have used CT-scans to help prove the authenticity of a south American ceremonial tsantsa, also known as a shrunken head, leading to its repatriation to Ecuador.
The head had been in the Mercer University natural history
The Art Newspaper
May 11, 2021
© Adam Kiefer
collection in Macon, Georgia, and was brought to the US from Ecuador by a now dead faculty member during the Second World War.
“It’s a relief to have the specimen out of our possession,” says Craig D. Byron, a professor of biology at Mercer University and one of the authors of the research paper about its authentication and return, published in the journal Heritage Science. “It had ‘underground’ value; it was illegal to trade or sell; it was the skin from a person’s head; we had no business holding on to this item. It was a rewarding conclusion to a project hanging around since 2015.”
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