Tribal warrior skulls repatriated to Taiwan by University of Edinburgh

The tribal skulls were stored in the University of Edinburgh's Anatomical Museum collection

Four tribal warrior skulls have been returned to Taiwan by the University of Edinburgh nearly 150 years after their deaths.

The Paiwan tribesmen were killed during a Japanese invasion of southern Taiwan.

It is believed their skulls were taken as war trophies and came into the university's possession in 1907.

After negotiations with Botan tribal leaders, the university agreed to return the human remains in a first of its kind repatriation to the island.

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The skulls were presented to dignitaries from the Mudan community - also known as the Botan tribe - in a formal handover ceremony at the University of Edinburgh's St. Cecilia's Hall.

Once the skulls are in Taiwan, they will be temporarily placed in the National Museum of Prehistory until a permanent resting place is confirmed after consultation with the Mudan communities.

'Mudan incident'

Mudan is a township in the south of Taiwan mainly populated by the Paiwan people, the second-largest indigenous group in Taiwan.

The four warriors where killed in 1874 by the Japanese who had invaded the island to avenge the deaths of 54 sailors who were massacred by the Paiwanese three years earlier.

The sailors travelled inland after becoming shipwrecked by a typhoon and were murdered in what became know as the Mudan Incident.

It provided Japan with a pretext to invade southern Taiwan and scholars said it served as a stepping stone for later occupation and colonization.

The understanding is that the four Mudan warriors were unlikely to have been the perpetrators of the original incident.

Representatives from the Mudan Township Office attend the repatriation event at the University of Edinburgh

Their skulls were thought to have originally been taken as war trophies by Japanese soldiers and were carried to Japan by an un-named US Navy officer who had accompanied the Japanese as a military advisor.

In the following 30 years, the skulls were in possession of Stuart Eldrige, a US doctor and skull collector living in Yokohama, and John Anderson, the first curator of the Indian Museum at Calcutta.

Three years later the skulls reached Edinburgh after being given to the university principal William Turner.

The university holds one of the largest and most historically significant collections of ancestral remains, notably skulls mostly assembled by Turner.

Like many UK universities with anatomical collections, the skulls came from the British Empire's colonies or through their global networks.

Human skulls were used in the study of anatomy and anthropology as well as the now discredited idea of phrenology - using the skull as indicator of mental ability and character traits.

Popular in the UK and other parts of Europe in the colonial era, phrenology formulated racist theories of inferiority.

The University of Edinburgh's Anatomical Museum collections are now studied for research into the history of genetics, diets and the movement of people.

It opened in 1884, consists of 12,000 objects and is freely available for the public to access.

Professor Tom Gillingwater, Chair of Anatomy at the University of Edinburgh, said: "We are committed to addressing our colonial legacy and this repatriation is the latest action we have taken in line with our longstanding policy of returning items to appropriate representatives of the cultures from which they were taken."

The first repatriation at the university took place over 75 years ago.

In 2019 nine skulls were returned after being taken from Sri Lanka during the British colonial period in the 1880s.