"People who were students 20 years ago remember them and bring their kids in to see them," he said.

Although the heads are shrunken to the size of softballs, the hair stays its original length. One of the heads has hair that is more than two feet long. The other head has short hair and a crack down the middle of its face.

"There was a change in humidity when they put in the new air conditioning system and that caused it to crack a little bit," Sicree said. "They're very old."

Sicree is unsure exactly how old the shrunken heads are; he estimates they were acquired by the museum sometime in the 1930s. During the years the heads have been kept in several different parts of the museum, but now are in the luminescent minerals room because the room is dark.

"It's probably better for them not to be exposed to continuous light," Sicree said.

The display case that holds the heads says they come from the Jivaro Indians of eastern Ecuador. The Jivaro shrink the heads of enemies killed in raids and keep them for ceremonial and sentimental reasons.

To shrink the head, the Jivaro first split the skin along the back of the head and remove the skin from the skull. Hot sand is then rolled around inside the skin to shrink it. The head is smoked over a wood fire to darken and preserve it.

When asked why the mineral museum has shrunken heads, Sicree laughed and explained that Edward Steidle, the former dean of the Earth and Mineral Sciences College, was a bit of a renaissance man and had varied interests. The building also has an art gallery.