(ORDO NEWS) — During regular excavations, archaeologists found a skull, whose age reaches 5300 years. There are holes in his temporal bones. Scientists say that this skull is evidence of the earliest operation on the ears.
Scientists suggest that the discovered remains belong to a woman who underwent trepanation of the mastoid process. Trepanation is an old surgical procedure in which a hole is made in the skull using a kind of drill. Also, the hole can be scraped out.
Ancient people often encountered ear infections, which became the cause of the inflammatory process, as well as infection of the mastoid process of the temporal bone. This disease could be fatal, because at that time medicine was not yet well developed.
On the discovered skull, there was not only evidence of a surgical operation, but also traces of bone restoration. This suggests that the woman was able to survive such a dangerous and painful procedure.
The remains were found in a burial chamber located in the city of Burgos. It contained almost 100 bodies. It was built in the 4th millennium BC.
Accordingly, the age of the skull reaches 5.3 millennia. The skull was found broken, but the skull remained intact. After analyzing the find, it turned out that the woman had quite a few teeth that had fallen out, and the thyroid cartilage had already ossified. This may indicate that she died at an advanced age.
In turn, computed tomography showed that both of her auditory canals had undergone changes. Experts suggest that trepanation is the cause. Regarding which instrument was used for the surgical intervention, the experts cannot answer at the moment.
—
Online:
Contact us: [email protected]
Our Standards, Terms of Use: Standard Terms And Conditions.