Academics at the University of Oxford drank from a cup made from a human skull for decades, with members of Worcester College using it at official dinners until 2015. The macabre artifact, a chalice fashioned from a human cranial dome and adorned with a silver handle and base, was part of the college’s dining traditions. The skull cup was donated to Worcester College in 1946 by a former student, George Pitt-Rivers, a supporter of racist and eugenic theories, whose name is engraved on its silver rim.
Professor Dan Hicks, curator of world archaeology at the Pitt Rivers Museum, was commissioned by Worcester College in 2019 to investigate the history of the skull cup. He described the object as “a kind of sick tableware” and was unable to identify the individual whose skull was used. Carbon dating revealed that the skull was approximately 225 years old. “The size of the skull and circumstantial evidence suggest it is from the Caribbean and may have belonged to an enslaved woman,” he explained.
The practice of using the skull cup persisted until growing awareness of colonialism led to its abandonment in 2015. Increasing discomfort among the professors’ guests prompted the college to reconsider the use of the cup. Worcester College has no records of how many times the cup was used, but a spokesperson confirmed that it was sometimes displayed with the college’s silverware collection in the 20th century and was even used as a serving dish. After the skull cup began leaking wine, it was repurposed to serve chocolates during official dinners.
George Pitt-Rivers, who donated the skull cup, was a eugenicist interned during World War II due to his support for the fascist leader Oswald Mosley. His connection to the cup and its colonial origins reveals the history intertwined with the artifact. “Dehumanization and the destruction of identities were part of the violence,” emphasized Hicks, shedding light on the brutality inherent in colonialism.
The cup’s provenance traces back to an auction conducted in 1838, where it was acquired by Augustus Henry Lane Fox Pitt Rivers, George Pitt-Rivers’s grandfather. Silver hallmarks on the chalice indicate it was made in 1838, the year of Queen Victoria’s coronation. The cup was part of the second collection of Augustus Pitt Rivers, a Victorian British soldier and archaeologist who founded the Pitt Rivers Museum in 1884.
Labour MP Bell Ribeiro-Addy reacted to the revelations, saying, “It is sickening to think of Oxford professors, sitting in this bastion of privilege, itself enriched by the fruits of centuries of violence and colonial extraction, drinking deeply of alcohol from a human skull that may have belonged to a person who was enslaved.” “A skull so devalued that it was turned into an object,” added Ribeiro-Addy, who chairs the All-Party Parliamentary Group on African Reparations.
Hicks aims to demonstrate how the identities of colonial victims were erased from history due to racist ideas related to British cultural superiority and white racial supremacy. “Due to the prevailing racism in British culture, the identities of colonial victims were regarded as no longer important,” he stated. In his upcoming book, “Every Monument Will Fall,” he tracks the history of the skull cup, describing its use as part of a “shameful narrative.”
The skull cup’s story is not isolated. The book also details other skulls looted by prominent Victorians from colonial battlefields, which were displayed in their homes or donated to museums. Among them is the skull of a Zulu chief extracted by Lord Grenfell two years after he was killed by the British army at the Battle of Isandlwana in 1879.
After receiving scientific and legal advice, Worcester College’s governing body decided to keep the skull cup in its archive “in a respectful manner, where access to it is permanently prohibited.” A spokesperson concluded that the matter was handled appropriately and considers that Hicks “agrees” with the decision.
The article was written with the assistance of a news analysis system.
