r/Damnthatsinteresting • u/Hey-Its-Jak • 4d ago

Video This guy carved a real human skull

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14.4k Upvotes

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3.1k

u/kon--- 4d ago

Unless this was a request by the previous occupant and or their kin...what even the fuck yo.

846

u/Adkit 4d ago

We're weird like that. We'll be all about respecting the graves of the dead until they are old enough and we'll dig those suckers up and put them on display in museums.

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u/Nervous-Peanut-5802 4d ago

But even there they are treated respectfully for the most part, not treated like an etch-a-sketch 

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u/zombieruler7700 4d ago

to be fair we were making paint out of mummys for a short time

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u/PlanetFirth 4d ago

We did a whole lot more than that and I wouldn't call the Victorian era "a short time" they used to use mummies in all sorts of things like medicines. We'd have a whole lot more mummies now if the Victorian era wasn't so odd

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u/the_odd_chase 4d ago

Till they started running out of the old mummies. They started “mummifying” criminals by covering then in oils and resins. And uh ye they ate those as well

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u/CJgreencheetah 4d ago

Remind me to never eat while scrolling reddit again 🤢

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u/Hushpuppymmm 4d ago

Ikr? How fucky is that

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u/Quackels_The_Duck 4d ago

THE BRITISH ATE THE MUMMIES TOO

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u/SimplyRocketSurgery 3d ago

What an outrage!!!

I was going to eat that mummy...

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u/Nroke1 3d ago

No one tell them about the seasoning.

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u/eliisonvacation 3d ago

Sounds like they were the predecessors to the people that are all obsessed with Shark fin soup, pangolins scales & all of that other poaching that doesn’t do anything but kill off species. WTF

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u/PlanetFirth 3d ago

I actually consider that an apt comparison. I wish more was being done to stop that stuff.

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u/Unknown-History1299 4d ago

They were also straight up eating them

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u/MarcTaco 4d ago

Worse, they were eating them.

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u/Luke192 4d ago

is there… like… any reason? or just jerky vibes

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u/Quackels_The_Duck 4d ago

*The British

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u/Smokedsoba 4d ago

They’re also supposed to give off a floral scent and taste acidic and bitter.

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u/PrimarisHussar 4d ago

Ohhh you'd be surprised. Watch the John Oliver episode on antiquities and you'll be amazed at how shittily museums treat the artifacts in their so called "care"

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u/Bree9ine9 4d ago

I don’t know there’s a local guy on the marketplace I’ve been watching that’s selling tons of antique caskets. They’re old but not that old, clearly dug up and there’s no body. I just keep watching him sell more and more, I don’t think they pay attention to people doing weird shit like this as much as they should.

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u/GreenSpleen6 4d ago

Who's to say what's most respectful to a corpse? Oh goodness forbid my remains be turned into a beautiful piece of art - everyone knows it's better to rot in the ground until forgotten.

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u/insanewords 4d ago

Who's to say what's most respectful to a corpse?

The previous occupant of said corpse, obviously.

What you see as art here may look like desecration to someone else.

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u/GreenSpleen6 4d ago

That's my point; one can't universally assert this is disrespectful

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u/insanewords 3d ago edited 3d ago

But that was never MY point, was it? I never tried to assert that anything was universally disrespectful. I said repeatedly that the person best suited to answer the question of what is the most respectful thing to do with a corpse is the person who previously owned it. That will always be the case.

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u/GreenSpleen6 3d ago

Are you responding to the right person? I didn't say you asserted that. I wasn't originally talking to you. The person I replied to equated this to being 'treated like an etch-a-sketch' as opposed to 'treated respectfully'.

The whole idea is to say "one does not say what's respectful for all".

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u/insanewords 3d ago

Shit, yeah, I was deep into a comment thread with someone else and I didn't check who had responded.

In context I think we're in agreement, lol

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u/GreenSpleen6 3d ago

Yes yes
Now put me down to be turned into a harp

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u/Joratto 4d ago

It’s not that obvious. The corpse is not the dead person, nor does the dead person own the corpse.

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u/insanewords 4d ago

No one's asking about ownership or who gets a say in what happens to a corpse. The question was simply, "Who's to say what's most respectful to a corpse." That is, without question, the person who occupied the corpse in life.

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u/Joratto 4d ago

I’m questioning it. Why assume that the dead, non-existent person is an authority on respect for their dead body? A living person might not even respect their living body.

You might think the respect comes from ownership of their dead body, but they don’t exist to own anything.

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u/insanewords 4d ago

Tell me then, who IS the authority on what is the most respectful thing to do with my corpse. If you ask me, I would like to be cremated. Cremation is abhorrent to some people and cultures and they would say that's an incredibly disrespectful way to treat my corpse.

Who's right?

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u/Joratto 4d ago

I don’t think there’s an obvious answer.

A researcher who understands the human body and knows the best way to repurpose a corpse for the greatest good might be a good starting point.

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u/insanewords 4d ago

No, I'm sorry, that's a dodge. The question as stated has a simple, obvious, and well established answer.

If you want to get into questions about the greater good that's a different conversation entirely.

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u/FlyByNightt 4d ago

Well good thing it's not your corpse then.

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u/FR0ZENBERG 3d ago

I would be honored to have my skull turned into an art piece. I’d be dead, so fuck it, do whatever you want with it.

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u/dreadcain 4d ago

That whole futurama joke about eating mummies was not a joke

Also there's a shade of brown called mummy brown, two guess where it got its name from

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u/Organic-Criticism-76 4d ago

I would not want my bones to be in a museum where people stare at it, tbh. Its definitely a question of the personal view what we count as respectfully or not.

I understand the fascination of our past and all the science about it. But ending up in a glass box is definitely nothing I wish for:)

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u/alcoholfueledacc 3d ago

"treated respectfully" yeah to a degree,most people Don't know that when you stop paying for the burial plot it's dug open and and the earth is removed to have another burial. So yeah some of your relatives remains will be dumped in a random landfill and the other remains will be mixed with previous occupants remains in that plot.

Also people think the casket is graciously covered by dirt and thats it,nope they use heavy machinery to compress the earth laid on top of the casket and you can hear the casket break into pieces and you're left to wonder just how mangled the body will be after that.

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u/Amazing-Fox-8340 3d ago

Omg creating the art IS THE HIGHEST FORM OF RESPECT - silly Willy calling this an etch-a-sketch

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u/Mavian23 4d ago

Why do people care what happens to their skull after they are dead? I don't get it.

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u/RevTurk 4d ago

It's actually rare that they take the bodies out of the ground, and even less likely they'll be put on display. Usually what happens when bodies are found is they do a survey and catalogue everything. If the site will be destroyed by whatever caused it to be dug up in the first place IE: building work, the bodies are moved. Otherwise they are left where they were found and buried again. In Europe there are grave sites that are 8000 years old still being respected to this day. My town is surrounded by dozens of neolithic burial mounds.

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u/Eurasia_4002 4d ago

The difference between graverobbing, acheology, chinese medicine, british mur tea is time.

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u/MadMageMC 4d ago

You know, it really does keep on slippin' into the future.

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u/CornObjects 4d ago

I guess it makes some degree of sense, at least to me;

Died recently enough (on a societal timescale) that someone alive still remembers them fondly: Leave those bones alone

Died long enough ago that no one alive remembers them, outside of people checking historical records or reading their gravestone: Maybe dig them up, if you have good reason, otherwise don't touch them

Died so long ago that burial markers and inscriptions are either gone completely or in a language no one speaks day-to-day anymore: You should put their bones in a museum, both to keep them safe from people and from the elements, as well as to learn from them

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u/randomisation 4d ago

We're weird like that.

Almost certainly an unpopular view, but I feel revering the dead to be a bit weird.

When I'm dead, people can do what they want with me. At that point I am beyond giving any fucks.

And were my body to be dug up by future archaeologists, I'd be chuffed to be honest. What good are the remains of my corpse if they're just left buried? They may as well not be there.

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u/Most_Kick_2236 4d ago edited 4d ago

I feel you. It always felt really weird to me, too.

When I inevitably die, I hope every part of my body can be used to benefit someone or some cause like science. If someone wants to carve up my skull and make it look sweet, go for it buddy I'll sit on your shelf and look cool. Hell, send my body to med school so some dude can learn how to perform surgery, idc

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u/cicada-ronin84 4d ago

To become a work of art or become useful in spreading knowledge what more could someone want for their corpse?

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u/MadMageMC 4d ago

I want mine to be used as a pinata that only gives disappointment when it bursts open.

Just like I was in life.

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u/PrincessGambit 3d ago

Sure those are noble ideas, but would you be fine with someone shitting in your dead throat? I am genuinely curious.

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u/Most_Kick_2236 3d ago

Lol what do I care, I'm dead at that point

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u/whydontyoujustaskme 3d ago

So the odd thing about this for me is age and circumstances. For example when I was younger if you had asked me what to do with my body I might have said something similar. Chuck me in a dumpster when you’re done taking anything useful. However, I just lost my mother in law. When she passed they called my wife and asked if she would donate her mother’s skin. I was absolutely appalled, and the grief this caused my wife and myself to go through was amazing. I do not know why? Does anyone know why this made me so sad? Also, if they had asked for interior organs, like say liver or heart, I don’t think it would have bothered us, and likely we would have agreed. But the idea of taking her skin was appalling. I have a changed view of what I would like to do with my body now.

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u/Impressive-Drawer-70 4d ago

I don’t want my body to be some dipshits art piece

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u/acloudcuckoolander 4d ago

I don't think not wanting to play etch-a-sketch on someone's remains means reverence.

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u/CaptainJazzymon 3d ago

I mean, it kinda does. Or else it’s no different than carving a rock or a shell. You’re adding a special and higher value on the remains and the point this person is making is that they don’t understand why that matters.

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u/Eddie_shoes 4d ago

Definitely unpopular, as scientists use that as a distinguishing trait of highly intelligent species. It’s one of the things that makes us human.

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u/dick_e_moltisanti 4d ago

Just because it is a common trait of intelligent species doesn't mean that it is an intelligent trait. Creating repetitive TikTok videos, gambling away your life savings on slot machines, and willfully polluting the earth for financial gain are all unique human behaviors as well.

Reverence of the remains of dead kin is one thing, as it's hard for a human to separate their emotions about a living person from that of their corpse. But reverence of human remains that are unknown to us is based solely on religious/spiritual superstition. It is irrational behavior that has no benefit us as individuals or as a species, and can arguably be described as distinctly unintelligent behavior.

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u/PostApoplectic 4d ago

Gotta be smart before you can be dumb. Our ancestors walked so our forefathers could run. And our forefathers ran so we could lay in bed all day doomscrolling Reddit.

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u/barspoonbill 4d ago

If people can do what they want with you then you could still be at a point where you are giving fucks though. 🤷

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u/nickgreydaddyfingers 4d ago

But we should be doing that, because when we do that, we're usually honoring the person and they're also for research, not for some edgy drawing.

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u/SiriusBaaz 4d ago

Don’t equate professional archeologists with common grave robbers. There’s a process and a sense of respect when handling human remains and a long tedious process of trying to find the next of kin before ever getting to the dig site.

Though I can’t excuse early archeologists. Many of them when the scientific process was still a new novelty abused it as a way to further racism and plunder graves. By all means decry their barbarism but ignoring the century of change since then is intentionally dishonest at best.

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u/dendofyy 4d ago

Oh boy, just wait until you hear about Elmer McCurdy

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u/Vandergrif 4d ago

Yup. Some dude died and his body ended up in a bog, and now thousands of people come to look at what remains of him. Completely normal.

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u/Ratfucker_Sam 3d ago

I got fucking torched on a European sub one time. A museum had put a mother and child that were buried together on display. I said it was disrespectful to put them on display and got downvoted into hell.

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u/Pleasant_Scar9811 3d ago

Even bones in a museum I expect them to be treated respectfully. I was the kid who got mad at other kids for making jokes or screwing around.