The research has the aim of eventually returning them to the relevant countries.
The skulls are part of a collection of about 7,700 that were acquired by the museum from Berlin’s Charité hospital in 2011 and many were assembled for ‘scientific’ experiments by the doctor and anthropologist Felix von Luschan during German colonial rule.
Now the remains have been DNA-matched to Tanzanian descendants. According to the museum, the DNA analysis had provided a clear link to living descendants in Tanzania, hailing the find as a “small miracle”.
The relatives and the government of Tanzania will be informed as soon as possible.
