Scalpels and skulls point to Bronze Age brain surgery

[n2doc]

31 August 2010 by Jo Marchant

Önder Bilgi talks about his discovery of a razor-sharp 4000-year-old scalpel and what it was originally used for

Where are you digging?

At an early Bronze Age settlement called Ikiztepe, in the Black Sea province of Samsun in Turkey. The village was home to about 300 people at its peak, around 3200 to 2100 BC. They lived in rectangular, single-storey houses made of logs, which each had a courtyard and oven in the front.

You have found what appear to be scalpels.

That's right. We have just found two cutting blades made of obsidian, a volcanic glass that forms a sharp edge when it fractures. The obsidian must have been imported from another region as there is no natural source of it in the area. We found the blades next to a circular clay platform that may have been used for religious ceremonies. The blades are double-sided, about 4 centimetres long, and very, very sharp. They would still cut you today.

What makes you think they were used for surgery?

We have found traces of cuts on skulls in a nearby graveyard. Out of around 700 skulls, 14 have these marks. They could only have been cut with a very sharp tool. At this time, 4000 years ago or more, it could only have been an obsidian blade. The cut marks show that a blade was used to make a rectangular opening all the way through the skull. We know that patients lived at least two to three years after the surgery, because the skull has tried to close the wound.

more

http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg20727750.200-scalpels-and-skulls-point-to-bronze-age-brain-surgery.html

[Ian David]

1. That explains what happened to McCain.

[skoalyman]

3. reminds me of Frankenstein

[struggle4progress]

2. IIRC, evidence of successful ancient trephination can be found worldwide

I'm not medically trained, but it's my understanding that this could sometimes have been a very helpful surgical intervention in cases where a skull fracture pushed bone into brain. But I suppose one ought to expect a certain amount of evidence for similar but unhelpful ancient interventions

[dimbear]

4. Sometimes you get demons caught in your head.

They need a new door.

[Meldread]

5. I'm not sure why they call it brain surgery.

There is no telling what they were actually doing. The only thing I'm pretty certain of is that it was most definitely a horrifying (and painful) experience.