Who invented scalping? Well, the answer, like much of history, is complicated.

Scalping or crudely cutting the crown of hair, skin included from a fallen enemy, is most often

associated with the American Indians. So much so that many, even to this day, believe that the

act originated in North America. Others assert that it was the Europeans who were the first to lift hair

and that they brought the atrocious behavior with them to the new world.

First off, let's just establish that scalping is absolutely not unique to the Americas.

The remains of hunter-gatherers in both Denmark and Sweden, dating all the way back to the Stone Age,

show signs of scalping. And the Greek historian Herodotus wrote of it in the year and Sweden, dating all the way back to the Stone Age, show signs of scalping.

And the Greek historian Herodotus wrote of it in the year 440 BC, describing how the Scythians

not only scalped their vanquished foes, but then used said trophies as napkins.

As far as the English go, they ain't off the hook either.

Harold Godwin, the Earl of Essex, was taking scalps as recently as

the 11th century, hundreds of years before his descendants would embark upon the new world.

And speaking of the new world, everyone from the British to the Dutch, the Spanish, Canadians,

Americans, even Mexicans, were paying good money for scalp locks.

Now, one might take this information and then

assume that scalping was indeed introduced to the Native Americans by the European colonists.

But that would not be correct. Not only did explorers observe the practice among the indigenous

in the mid-1500s from Canada to Mexico, but many a pre-Columbian archaeological dig has turned up scalped

noggins long before Columbus ever sailed the ocean blue. One of the more grisly discoveries

comes from the Cow Creek Massacre site in present-day South Dakota. I got no idea which tribes

were involved, but this particular fight took place sometime around the year 1350 and resulted in nearly 500

...