Trepanation
Holes are cut in living skulls across the Neolithic world, and the patients often survive.
- When
- —
- Duration
- 3.2 thousand years
- Known to
- ± 300 years
- Era
- Neolithic, Holocene
Skulls with deliberate circular openings, made by scraping, cutting or drilling, are found from France to Peru to China, with European examples from around 6500 BCE. Bone regrowth around the margins shows a large proportion of patients lived — in some samples the majority. Why it was done is unknown; treatment of head injury, epilepsy or headache, and release of spirits have all been proposed. It is the oldest surgical procedure for which there is evidence.