Oxford academics drank from human skull cup for decades, book reveals

By Burak Bir

LONDON (AA) - Academics at the University of Oxford drank from a chalice made from a human skull until 2015, according to the forthcoming book Every Monument Will Fall.

In his book tracing the violent colonial history of looted human remains, Dan Hicks reveals that the skull cup was used regularly at formal dinners at Worcester College until 2015, The Guardian reported.

After it began to leak, the skull chalice was used to serve chocolates, according to Hicks, who is also curator of world archaeology at the university’s Pitt Rivers Museum.

Although there is no record identifying the individual whose remains were used, radiocarbon dating estimates the skull is about 225 years old.

Hicks said evidence suggests the remains came from the Caribbean and belonged to an enslaved woman.

The skull cup was donated to Worcester College in 1946 by former student George Pitt-Rivers, according to the report.

Pitt-Rivers was a noted eugenicist who was interned by the British government during World War II over his support for fascist leader Oswald Mosley.

“Sickening. The government must legislate to tackle the ongoing holding, display and collection of human remains acquired through enslavement and colonisation,” Labour MP Bell Ribeiro-Addy posted on X in response to the article.