# Macrocephali
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{{Short description|Ancient tribe of Africans or Indians who performed artificial cranial deformation}}{{about|the ancient tribe|the medical condition|Macrocephaly}}
The '''Macrocephali''' ({{langx|grc|Μακροκέφαλοι}}; "long-headed people") were ancient tribes living near the Black Sea who performed [artificial cranial deformation](/source/artificial_cranial_deformation).[{{cite web|url=https://www.theoi.com/Phylos/Makrokephaloi.html|title=Macrocephali|accessdate=2008-12-28|work=[Theoi Greek Mythology](/source/Theoi_Greek_Mythology)}}][{{cite book|title=Museum of Foreign Literature, Science and Arts|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=TucXAQAAIAAJ&pg=PA612|year=1842|publisher=E. Littell|page=612}}]
[Pliny the Elder](/source/Pliny_the_Elder), [Pomponius Mela](/source/Pomponius_Mela), [Scylax](/source/Scylax), and [Hippocrates](/source/Hippocrates) all mention a people specifically by this name living northeast of [Pontus](/source/Pontus_(region)).[{{Cite book |last=Strabo |title=The Geography of Strabo |publisher=Harvard University Press |year=1928 |series=Loeb Classical Library |volume=5 |pages=293, 399 |translator-last=Jones |translator-first=Horace Leonard}}][{{Cite book |last=Smith |first=William |title=A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography |publisher=AMS Press |year=1966 |volume=2 |pages=241}}] The Macrocephali were also treated as a mythical species on the same level as the [Cynocephaly](/source/Cynocephaly), [Pygmies](/source/Pygmy_(Greek_mythology)), and [Skiapodes](/source/Monopod_(creature)).[{{Cite book |last=Strabo |title=The Geography of Strabo |publisher=Harvard University Press |year=1917 |volume=1 |pages=157 |translator-last=Jones |translator-first=Horace Leonard|series=Loeb Classical Library}}] In book 3 of ''Philostratus's Life of Apollonius'', an Indian monk named Iarchas refutes the existence of all such creatures found in the books of [Scylax](/source/Scylax_of_Caryanda) besides the Pygmies.[{{Cite book |last=Philostratus |title=The life of Apollonius of Tyana |last2=Jones |first2=C. P. |date=2005 |publisher=Harvard University Press |isbn=978-0-674-99613-7 |series=Loeb classical library |location=Cambridge, MA}}]
Dr. Heinrich Rathke writes about elongated skulls being found in northern [Caucasus](/source/Caucasus) during the early 1800s which he attributes to the Macrocephali. Indentations in the bone show that the skulls had been bound by clothes to change the shape.[{{Cite journal |last=Rathke |first=Heinrich |date=1843 |title=Ueber die Macrocephali bei Kertsch in der Krimm |url=https://dn790000.ca.archive.org/0/items/dieknstlichede00kohluoft/dieknstlichede00kohluoft.pdf |journal=Archiv für Anatomie, Physiologie und wissenschaftliche Medicin |pages=142-148}}] A drawing of such skulls was also on display at a museum in [Kerch](/source/Kerch) as of 1842.[{{Cite book |last=Hippocrates |title=Hippocrates |publisher=Harvard University Press |series=Loeb Classical Library |volume=1 |publication-date=1923 |pages=111 |translator-last=Jones |translator-first=W. H. S.}}][Hippocrates of Cos (1923) [''ca.'' 400 BC] Airs, Waters, and Places, Part 14, e.g., Loeb Classic Library Vol. 147, pp. 110-111 (W. H. S. Jones, transl., DOI: 10.4159/DLCL.hippocrates_cos-airs_waters_places.1923, see [http://www.loebclassics.com/view/hippocrates_cos-airs_waters_places/1923/pb_LCL147.111.xml?rskey=NcreTt&result=1&mainRsKey=ZaPSey]. Alternatively, the Adams 1849 and subsequent English editions (e.g., 1891), ''The Genuine Works of Hippocrates'' (Francis Adams, transl.), New York, NY, USA: William Wood, at the [MIT] Internet Classics Archive (Daniel C. Stevenson, compiler), see [https://classics.mit.edu/Hippocrates/airwatpl.14.14.html]. Alternatively, the Clifton 1752 English editions, "Hippocrates Upon Air, Water, and Situation; Upon Epidemical Diseases; and Upon Prognosticks, In Acute Cases especially. To which is added…" Second edition, pp. 22-23 (Francis Clifton, transl.), London, GBR: John Whiston and Benj. White; and Lockyer Davis, see [https://books.google.com/books?id=LNhhAAAAcAAJ]. Alternatively, Hippocrates, De aere aquis et locis, Charles Darwin Adams, Ed., 14, see [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0248%3Atext%3DAer.%3Asection%3D14 [4]]. All web versions accessed 8 April, 2026.]
[Juan Huarte](/source/Juan_Huarte_de_San_Juan) wrote that the Macrocephali had heads like a sugar-loaf, in which the top was extended. His work claimed that due to the practice being done so often children were being born with naturally elongated heads.[{{Cite book |title=Race in early modern England: a documentary companion |date=2007 |publisher=Palgrave Macmillan |isbn=978-0-230-60733-0 |editor-last=Loomba |editor-first=Ania |location=New York |editor-last2=Burton |editor-first2=Jonathan}}] Something which Hippocrates believed should have been happening but ultimately dismissed.