Ancient Cranial Surgery Drilled Holes in Human Skulls Thousands of Years Ago

Cranial surgery is tricky business, even in modern day. Now think of cranial surgery being conducted thousands of years ago. Archaeologists have uncovered exactly that, revealing that healers in Peru once drilled holes in the skulls of their patients.

Archaeologists made the findings in burial caves in the south-central Andea province of the Andahuaylas in Peru. There, they found the remains of 32 individuals that date back to the Late Intermediate Period. Among the remains, the archaeologists also uncovered evidence of 45 separate trepanation procedures.

Trepanation is a surgical procedure that involves removing a section of the cranial vault using a hand drill or a scraping tool. In the past, this method was used to treat a variety of ailments-from head injuries to heartsickness.

"When you get a knock on the head that causes your brain to swell dangerously, or you have some kind of neurological spiritual or psychosomatic illness, drilling a hole in the head becomes a reasonable thing to do," said Danielle Kurin, one of the researchers, in a news release.

Trepanations actually first appeared in the south-central Andean highlands during the Early Intermediate Period (ca. AD 200-600). While the technique was not universally practiced, it was still considered to be a viable medical procedure. In fact, the archaeologists founds instances of different techniques being used for this particular procedure, which seemed to indicate that past medics were experimenting with a process.

"It looks like they were trying different techniques, the same way we might try new medical procedures today," said Kurin in a news release. "They're experimenting with different ways of cutting into the skull."

Currently, the researchers hope to find out what caused people to start using trepanation in the first place. Once it began to be practiced, though, the obvious intent was to save lives with this particular technique. In fact, some individuals recovered and their skulls began to regrow over the wound.

The findings are published in the American Journal of Physical Anthropology.