Kirk Sigurdon Takes on the Paracas Skulls

An elongated Paracas skull

"Most people don't know that King Tut's and his daddy's skulls are both elongated. But what about a bunch of skulls in Peru?" --Kirk Sigurdson

More Paracas Skulls

Brien Foerster and his Peruvian research on odd-shaped skulls is making the media rounds lately. Popularized by "main stream" media, the story really starts in 1928 when a Peruvian archaeologist, Julio Tello, discovered a massive graveyard  filled with the remains of elongated-skull individuals. Tello found more than 300 of these elongated skulls, which are believed to date back around 3,000 years. 

Kirk Sigurdson reports on KultusBook.com that, "DNA Tests Reveal South American Elongated Skulls NOT Human" You can read an excerpt below followed by a link to Mr. Sigurdson's post.

When elongated skulls are found (more often than you might think) anthropologists have been trained to assume that the odd shape of the skulls is due to ""cradle boarding." This horrible practice was common in a few cultures thousands of years ago. Baby's flexible heads were bound in such a way as to elongate their skulls over time as they grew and hardened permanently.

Enter: The "Paracas" skulls. They are definitely elongated. Far more than King Tut's skull!

The skulls were found on a desert peninsula of the south coast of Peru. This area used to be Incan. Of course, the skull find there is nothing new. In fact, the skulls are old news, although the DNA tests on a few of them are new.

Read more at DNA Tests Reveal South American Elongated Skulls NOT Human

Unknown Mega-Society of Chimps Found in The Congo

Actually these newly discovered chimps kill leopards, but we thought this was cuter.

The Times of India is reporting a newly discovered mega-society of chimps, a population of perhaps thousands. Locals have been talking about them for yearss, they have even claimed the chimps were known to take down leopards. Read an excerpt below.

An unknown mega-society of chimpanzees has been discovered living in a 50,000sqkm forest in northern Democratic Republic of the Congo. Researchers of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany, and the University of Amsterdam in The Netherlands walked hundreds of kilometers in the forests across the region for several years and caught their activities on motion activated cameras.

The Eastern chimpanzees, as they are called, inhabit remote Bili-Gangu forest which is infested with poachers and rogue militias. Local people reported that there were great apes in the forest that could kill and eat leopards, but to the outside world, nothing was known.

The article continues to mention the use of game trail cams, "The chimpanzees of Bili-Gangu build nests on the ground, patrol their territory and were caught on cameras killing an occasional leopard."

The scientists covered a total of 1,800km of reconnaissance walks to the north and 500km to the south of the Uele River as well as 160km of line transects in the Bili-Gangu Forest, and discovered a population of chimpanzees numbering in the thousands. Evidence of behavioral continuity shows that the north and south groups may be connected culturally as well.

"Our results suggest that a large and widespread population of chimpanzees inhabits the forests and savannas of northern DRC", says Thurston C. Hicks, a primatologist based at the Max Planck Institute. "This population has remained unnoticed to researchers until now and may represent the largest viable population of this subspecies, but it currently lacks any protection." When they re-walked parts of these transects again in 2012, the researchers found that the number of chimpanzee sleeping nests had not declined since 2005.

You can read the article in it's entirety at  Unknown mega-society of chimps found in Africa
The Daily Mail also has a great article on the same topic Researchers discover 10,000-strong community of Chimpanzees

Eduardo Sanchez: Exists is like a feature length Patterson-Gimlin film

Promo Pic for Eduardo Sanchez's Exists

"Not a comedic Bigfoot. Not a fake-looking, CG Bigfoot. Not an alien Bigfoot with super human abilities - just the creature I loved - a feature-length PATTERSON-GIMLIN film." --Eduardo Sanchez on the type of Bigfoot he wanted in his movie

Exists, by director Eduardo Sanchez, is the Bigfoot movie that the film community has been waiting for. It will be screened at this years SXSW 2014 Film festival in March during the coveted midnight showing. Drew McWeeny from HitFix says, "When I attend Toronto, Sundance, and SXSW each year, one of the things I specifically focus on is the midnight programming."

In Drew McWeeny's HitFix article, he continues to mention how he looks forward to the screening of Exists, "Another familiar name. Eduardo Sanchez is, of course, best known as the co-creator of "The Blair Witch Project," but I think he's made a strong showing in the last few years. "Lovely Molly" is a film that really stuck with me, and I think he's got a great sense of creepy these days, plus he's constantly thinking about the role technology plays, not only in how we tell these stories, but in which stories we tell. Plus it sounds like this is a Bigfoot movie, and that's fine by me."

On the SXSW website Eduardo Sanchex is interviewed regarding his movie.

Tell us a little about your film.
I've been obsessed with Bigfoot ever since I saw the Patterson-Gimlin film as a kid. It was the SCARIEST thing I had ever experienced. It fascinated me and took over my world.
Since then, I've wanted to make a movie about the big guy...
But a movie where Bigfoot felt scary and REAL - like the Bigfoot that I experienced all those years ago. Not a comedic Bigfoot. Not a fake-looking, CG Bigfoot. Not an alien Bigfoot with super human abilities - just the creature I loved - a feature-length PATTERSON-GIMLIN film.
Exists is the Bigfoot movie I've been waiting to see.

Why did you start making films?
I saw Star Wars and that was it - I wanted to make films. But I didn't really take it seriously until high school, where I took a TV production in 11th grade that changed my life.
I still remember the moment: first day of class - first few sentences that came out of Mr. Baron's mouth about careers in television and film...
I knew what I was going to do.
Or at least try to do...

Have you been to SXSW before? Any tips?
Yes - I was at SXSW for Lovely Molly in 2012 and VHS2 in 2013.
Tips - figure out how not to drive into the downtown area during the day - it's tough love.
Most looking forward to - the filmmaker's lunch that Robert Rodriguez hosts every year...and the BBQ.

Tell us a random fact (or two!) that would help our attendees get a better idea of who you are.
I am probably the tallest Cuban-American filmmaker at this year's festival.

Official Synopsis of Exists:

When brothers Brian and Matt Tover secretly sneak out to their Uncle's long abandoned cabin in East Texas for a party weekend with their friends, they find themselves stalked by the legendary Sasquatch.

Cut off from the world, and knowing help isn’t coming, the kids must try to make it out of the woods alive while hunted by a creature that’s smarter, stronger, and more terrifying than they would have ever believed exists.

You can read about the Exists' innovative creature design, Watch exclusive clips and stills from Exists, or just click read our complete coverage of Exists.

For an extra bonus, you can even watch this excellent Eduardo Sanchez interview by Ro Sahebi from MuldersWorld.. Ro and I have some exciting stuff coming round the bend so stay tuned.