Ćele-kula is a unique building with built-in human skulls from the First Serbian Uprising, a witness to a stormy historical event, the courage and sacrifice of the insurgents. The scientific project "New face of Ćele-kula" is underway, which includes anthropological analysis, digitization and reconstruction of the face of the fallen insurgents.
During the First Serbian Uprising, on May 31, 1809, the Turks attacked the Serbian trench on Čegra near Niš, where one of the most famous battles took place. The fight lasted all day. When Duke Stevan Sinđelić saw that a large number of Turks had entered the trench, he went to the warehouse and ignited gunpowder. He blew up himself, his soldiers, but also the Turks who jumped into the trench. It is believed that between 3.000 and 4.000 insurgents died in this terrible undertaking.
After the colors on Čegro, the Turkish commander Niša Huršid Pasha ordered the construction of a tower in which the heads of the fallen Serbian soldiers would be built in order to intimidate the Serbs and suppress their insurrectionary fervor. Before they were built into the tower, their heads were skinned. They were then filled with cotton and sent to the Sultan in Constantinople as a symbol of victory. Serbian turkeys were forced to do this heinous job, for which they were paid 25 groschi each. By the end of the year a horrifying square structure of skulls had been built in the open for all to see, with skinned skulls built up on all sides and facing outwards, cemented together with lime and sand.
The French poet Alfonso de Lamartine passed through Nis, thanks to whom Europe heard about the Cell Tower. In part The road to the east In 1833, he wrote: "... I greeted with my eyes and heart the remains of those heroic men, whose severed heads became the cornerstone of the independence of their homeland. The Serbia we will enter is now free, and the song of freedom and glory echoed in the tower of the Serbs who died for their country. Soon Niš will also be theirs: let them preserve this monument! He will tell their children what the independence of a nation is worth, showing them at what cost their fathers paid for it paid".
Decades later, the Austro-Hungarian travel writer Felix Kanitz, who visited Nis several times, left significant records about the origin, appearance and condition of the Čele-kula. According to the notes of the Serbian author Isidor Stojanović from 1846, there were 952 skulls in 56 rows in the tower. Later, for humanitarian and religious reasons, the locals removed the skulls from the tower under the cover of night and buried them in the cemetery, knowingly risking the anger of the Turks. It is known that passers-by and travelers took teeth and pieces of bone as amulets, thinking that they would protect their lives, health and bring good luck. During the last decades of the Turkish rule, the tower fell into disrepair, and the skulls, despite prohibitions, were taken away.
In 1878, Niš met its liberation in the state in which we know it today. Since then, attention has started to be paid to her. The chapel was built in 1892, decades later it was fenced off, a monument was erected with a bust of Stevan Sinđelić and a relief depicting the Battle of Cegro. Since 1982, the Ćele-kula has received the status of a cultural property of exceptional importance.
Today, only 58 skulls have been preserved, one of which was singled out because it is assumed that it belonged to Duke Stevan Sinđelić. Those skulls are the subject of research by scientists in the "New face of Ćele-kula" project. The project was initiated by physical anthropologist Dr. Nataša Šarkić and political scientist Milan Simonović, is led by the Society for Academic Development from Belgrade, and is supported by the National Museum in Niš. The project is implemented thanks to donations: in 45 days of the campaign, a little less than one million dinars was collected, which is more than expected.
The implementation of the project began last year with the aim of anthropologically analyzing the remaining skulls and reconstructing the faces of the fallen insurgents based on that, as well as digitizing the tower. It should be noted that the analyzes carried out on the skulls were non-destructive (while the analyzes of stable isotopes and ancient DNA would damage the osteological material) and involved observation, measurement and photography.
Dr. Nataša Šarkić explains that "on the one hand, the problem was the height of the tower because some skulls are as much as 4,5 meters from the ground, but we somehow managed to overcome that. A much bigger problem is the bad restoration done in the 80s, or maybe even earlier (the data is scarce), where the lower jaws or damaged parts of the skull were incorrectly placed. It also happened that the jaws were mixed up. Also, we could not examine the skulls and teeth with from all sides, as is done during anthropological analyses, so we could not see if someone had a blow to the back of the head".
Through the anthropological analysis of the skulls, Dr. Nataša Šarkić revealed the sex, age, health status of the persons and injuries. Despite the poor preservation of the skulls, she received significant information about the victims. In 78 percent of the cases, she was able to determine the sex of the people, finding out that all of them were men between the ages of 11 and over 50. She noticed the frequency of dental diseases (caries, loss of teeth during life, periodontitis) and indicators that indicate malnutrition, parasitic infections or some serious diseases. The occurrence of metopysms on the skulls is interesting, which may indicate that these men were related to someone closer or more distant.
Injuries that occurred during life and those that were the cause of death of these men were observed. It is especially sad to learn that the youngest killed insurgent on Cegro was only 11 years old. A fatal blunt force trauma was observed on his skull. Dr. Šarkić's analysis did not confirm the historical data according to which Serbian soldiers were scalped, ears and noses cut off.
The most interesting is the skull that was not built into the Ćele-kula, but was separated and placed on a pedestal, and which is believed to belong to Duke Stevan Sinđelić. "In order to be able to confirm this with 100 percent certainty, we would have to do DNA analyses. Namely, such analyzes are destructive, and therefore not allowed. What we know based on the anthropological analysis is that it is a man in his late thirties, who had a lot of physiological stress in his childhood and who was wounded several times in conflicts (maybe battles?). It was also established that the skull was decapitated. We know that Zađelić was was 38 or 39 years old at the time of his death, and that he came from a modest family. We did not come across any information that he was wounded, but we know that he participated in many armed conflicts, but for now we have to wait for the final results of the facial reconstructions, which will be presented this year," said Dr. Šarkić.
By building the Ćele-kula, the Turks wanted to intimidate the Serbs and create a monument that would serve as a warning to the people. However, the opposite effect was achieved - Ćelekula in Niš is, first of all, a symbol of the sacrifice and courage of the Serbian people in the struggle for freedom.
