"Last European Headhunters " Topic

"Beachcombing has been trying to keep up with decapitation this summer by looking at late examples of head-hunting. Go back to the Celts, the Germanic tribes and even the Romans and there are several striking examples of head-hunting in Europe well into historic times. Then, of course, if you cross the Atlantic there is scalping: a sport Beach examined on a previous occasion with reference to the unpleasant end of a young German soldier. But when, to get down to business, were the last instances of European warriors cutting off neighbours' heads just for the hell of it?

If someone were to put a gun to Beach's head and ask the question: ‘in which European region did the last head-hunting take place?', he would answer instinctively ‘the Balkans'. And, on the basis of some reading Beach indulged in today it looks as if he would be right. The following description dates to the early 1920s and the author's Christian name was Edith. Edith was one of those extraordinary English matrons of another era, who once stopped a Montenegrin biting another Montenegrin's nose off ‘on the road between Cattaro and Njegus' as ‘the blood dripped freely from the ends of his enemy's long moustache'. But we digress. For present purposes Edith confides that…"
Full article here
link

Amicalement
Armand

Well without following the link my first thought on seeing the post title was the 'Cockpit of Europe.'

My ancestors had some rather rude neighbors to the south and east…(although the neighbors to the west and north were pretty obnoxious at times as well)
ea

P.S. Not in Europe and I don't know which side of the Dardanelles they came from, but a hobby store owner I did business with 40 years ago recounted that in Korea during the Korean War that Turks in the UN forces would put North Korean (perhaps Chinese) heads on stakes at the edge of their entrenchments. He note that this seemed to cause a reduction in the intensity of the attacks on the Turkish positions…

Interseting… thanks for share my friend.

Amicalement
Armand

I believe that heads were taken in the former Yugoslav republics in the 1990s. But I don't have a good cite for it.

Not in Europe, but ISIS has the predilection for severed heads on stakes in the Middle East … saw footage on CNN today …