According to an astonishing discovery from Spain, a woman living 2,500 years B.C. BC lived, two trepanations, two holes in the skull for medical purposes, survived.
Trepanation is this primitive technique that consists of opening a person’s skull while he is still alive… in order to treat him. This may seem frightening in a time when general anesthesia was used to remove wisdom teeth, and yet ample evidence from the Neolithic to the Middle Ages shows that the practice continued for a long time. Archaeologists have also discovered the skeleton of a woman who apparently suffered twice and survived!
Two “scratched” holes in the skull
This is a skull from the period 4,500 years (between 2566 and 2239 BC), which was recently discovered at a burial site in southeastern Spain. According to a new study appearing in the International Journal of Paleopathology, it belonged to a woman aged 35 to 45. Scientists found out two strange holes one above the other, located between the temple and the top of the ear, a few centimeters each. They appear to have been caused by surgical procedures performed in two cases: Gradually scratch the scalp with a rudimentary tool. Take in literal approach to medicinePopulations that practiced trepanation thought they were treating headaches, mental disorders, or head trauma, which may have been the case here.
Researchers have actually found trauma in other skeletons found near this skeleton. Her theory is that this woman may have suffered them too and therefore “treated” these shocks by acting in this way. According to the analysis of her skull, she survived these two risky operations because her skull bone was found to have healed, which can take several months.
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