Emily Chan
According to Dan Hicks, the curator of world archaeology at the Pitt Rivers Museum, some of the skulls included inscriptions of phrenological measurements by Augustus Pitt Rivers.
Phrenology was a pseudoscience developed in the 19th century that claimed the shape of the skull was indicative of certain mental characteristics.
The canceled sale of the skulls has shed light on the ethical standards in the world of arts and antiquities. Perhaps it will spark a conversation over the morality of selling human remains.
