Your worst day at the office is not a skull on your desk. People used to turn enemies into tableware and instruments. Perspective is a hell of a drug. ☕
I had my AI research agent pull the sources on this, and history politely slapped me across the face. Five quick shocks, minus the gore, plus the receipts.
Balkans, 811 - Khan Krum vs. Emperor Nikephoros I. After a disastrous Byzantine campaign, later sources say Krum turned Nikephoros’s skull into a cup for his nobles. Likely Byzantine propaganda, but the story stuck for centuries.
Italy, about 567 - Lombard king Alboin and King Cunimund. Paul the Deacon writes that Alboin made a drinking vessel from his enemy’s skull and the court kept it as a trophy. Might be literary theater, but it lived on in Lombard memory.
Dnipro rapids, 972 - Pecheneg khan Kurya and Prince Sviatoslav I. The Primary Chronicle claims they made a skull cup to capture the fallen prince’s valor. One main source, strong ritual logic in their world.
Papua New Guinea, 19th-20th c. - Warriors carved daggers from a defeated man’s thigh bone. A 2018 study showed the human-bone versions were engineered tougher and guarded as status symbols.
New Zealand, Māori - Kōauau flutes made from bone, sometimes human, sometimes an enemy’s. Museums still hold them, tied to memory, rank, and the quiet weight of lineage.
The catch: some chronicles were biased, some tales dramatized, and context matters. But the through-line is heavy and simple - for most of history, people honored victory with objects made from the loser. That was normal. Our 7 pm meeting is not war. Our Slack pings are not siege horns.
My take: be relentless on problems and deadline discipline, and radically kind to the humans in the room. The past already showed us the other path, and it’s ugly.
Which of these hit you hardest?
#history #work #perspective #leadership #culture #workculture #mentalmodels