Skeleton may show ancient brain surgery

[mrl1970]

Skeleton may show ancient brain surgery


http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/23581918/

[Craig]

Scientist (and religious scholars) never cease to amaze me.  Find a skeleton with a hole in the skull and conclude it was surgery performed 1800 years ago.  I guess there is no chance that someone clubbed her with a sword, or something fell on her head, or any of a hundred ways a hole could end up in a skull.


Craig

[Beloved]

Hard to fully understand what was going on in  te minds of primitive folk, they did not even know what Brain was.

here is a site about trephining, the term to describe these holes, the thought was pressure relief, perhaps make a opening to let the evil spit out. I have seen some of these ancient instruments. I doubt that many were conscious during the procedure. They can tell that some people survived because the bone was healed.

http://www.cerebromente.org.br/n02/historia/trepan.htm

beloved

[Craig]

perhaps make a opening to let the evil spit out

That "evil spit" is baaaaaad stuff

Craig

[Deborah-Leigh]

Is that where the saying....you must have a hole in the head...

[David]

The hole is a similar shape to an axe or hammer head......did they have tools like that in  those times?
Where did they get tools that were surgically sharp enough to cut a piece of the skill out without exerting enough pressure to kill the patient? Looks to me like this poor woman got her head bashed in.

[phazel]

Skeleton may show ancient brain surgery


http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/23581918/

I think it was a result of alien experimentation.   I figure its just as plausible based on the evidence.

[Kent]

Nah, everyone knows aliens use probes

[Beloved]

People have strange notions here is a link regarding the deliberate changing of the shape of the head by some cultures..
enlarge the skeleton and see another trephine in matching skulls.

http://www.britannica.com/eb/article-9039694/head-flattening

Heads can be born mishappened most will resume normal shap some do not, but this culture really thought this looked good. Well some like funny looking ears with huge pluf holes ...they are back in today.

Aliens?  Phazel I would think they would have a more unique technique.    Wonder how many people walking around now have these? 

Beloved

[phazel]

I'm thinking back then the aliens were not as advanced as they would be now.

[hillsbororiver]

As Beloved pointed out earlier the process of trephination goes way back and even more amazing it was not a regional custom limited to one area of the world but there is evidence of this being done throughout the world, even 10,000 (or so they say) years ago.

This is from Wikipedia;

Trepanation (also known as trepanning, trephination, trephining or burr hole) is surgery in which a hole is drilled or scraped into the skull, thus exposing the dura mater in order to treat health problems related to intracranial diseases, though in the modern era it is used only to treat epidural and subdural hematomas, as an extreme body modification, and for surgical access for certain other neurosurgical procedures, such as intracranial pressure monitoring.

Trepanation was carried out for both medical reasons and mystical practices for a long time: evidence of trepanation has been found in prehistoric human remains from Neolithic times onwards, per cave paintings indicating that people believed the practice would cure epileptic seizures, migraines, and mental disorders.[1] Furthermore, Hippocrates gave specific directions on the procedure from its evolution through the Greek age.

The modern medical procedure of corneal transplant surgery uses a technique known as trepanning or trephining, however the operation is conducted on the eye (not the skull), with an instrument called a trephine.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trepanation

Here are a few more links;

http://www.neurosurgery.org/Cybermuseum/pre20th/treph/trephination.html

http://www.uic.edu/classes/osci/osci590/6_2Trephination.htm

http://www.mesoweb.com/features/tiesler/Cranial.pdf

http://www.discoveriesinmedicine.com/Ra-Thy/Surgical-Instruments.html

Interesting stuff indeed but please don't try this at home! 

Peace,

Joe