Ancient rites of the flattening of the head of the Maya.

The ancient Maya, who inhabited at some time in the form of numerous tribes of South America had a truly horrific rites. It is believed that among the ancient Maya there were certain canons of beauty, which did not correspond to the natural data of ordinary people. Thus, one of the most beautiful parts of the face was considered the forehead, which is literally formed a right angle with the nose. It is difficult to imagine, but the Maya were clearly the goal of coming up with different ways to adjust the face to this standard.

Deformation of the skull they reached due to the fact that compressed it to a special "press," which consisted of a straight planks set on each other. They were fastened with ropes only from one side to the other end of the board could climb divorced head. As you might guess, it was possible to change only the skull in the newborn state. Thus, barely born babies were given horrendous procedure of flattening the skull, after which they were considered beautiful. Boards with skull already massed on both sides, gradually changing the shape of the skull.

Well, now that you can achieve any effect with graphics programs. Install Photoshop CS5 under WINE and ready, you can flatten anything in the picture. As follows from the practice of such torture was not affected by the mental capabilities of Maya, considering their achievements. But it was worth several hundred Mayan infants who died during the procedure. Perhaps the procedure of "flat head" is a kind of tribute to the religious beliefs of the ancients, such as baptism. This assumption may be to believe, considering that one of the Mayan sacred animal was considered a rattlesnake, which can not be found near Lake Issyk-Kul, which has just flattened head.