Surgery is a fairly ancient field of medicine - in Ancient Greece and Egypt, very complex operations have already been successfully performed. The so-called Smith papyrus, written in ancient Egypt in 1700 BC, describes surgical instruments, including special copper needles for stitching wounds. But the latest findings of archaeologists show that this science existed much earlier than one can imagine …
Neanderthal trepanation
At the end of the 20th century, an amazing find was made in France. Near the village of Ensinheim, archaeologists have discovered an ancient burial site with the remains of people who lived about 7000 years ago. But the most striking thing about this find was that one of the skeletons, which supposedly belonged to a man about 50 years old, had two very neat holes on the skull - one about 6 cm in diameter, the other about 8 cm.
These holes did not have any cracks or chips at the edges, which are formed by head injuries, and archaeologists concluded that they appeared as a result of a surgical operation.
When archaeologists turned to the surgeons, showing them the found skull, they delivered their verdict: this skull was definitely subjected to surgical intervention, and it was performed skillfully. Judging by the fact that the wounds in the skull healed successfully, having covered with new bone tissue, trepanation took place without complications and infections. And this despite the fact that it was unambiguously carried out without a concept of septic and antiseptic - or in ancient times, healers had an idea of some other ways to fight infections.
Probably, the role here was played by the fact that the operations were carried out with silicon scrapers, and silicon has the ability to destroy bacteria.
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It is interesting that the operations were performed at different times - that is, the patient underwent surgery twice, and both times he successfully underwent trepanation and postoperative complications.
Surgeons and archaeologists came to a general conclusion - if there was only one intervention, after which the patient remained alive, then it would have been just a pure coincidence and that the ancient Aesculapius and his patient were simply lucky. But since the man experienced two whole trepanations, we can talk about certain skills and skill of the ancient surgeon …
This is far from an isolated case of the discovery of skeletons bearing traces of the intervention of ancient surgeons. Recently, a skull was found in the UK that belonged to a man who lived about 2 thousand years ago.
It had a correct hole measuring 3 by 4 cm. There are also no cracks around the hole, that is, and it is the result of surgery.
British researchers believe that ancient surgeons saved patients in this way from epilepsy and severe headaches - it was believed that if a hole was made in the skull, the disease would go away, and alcohol or narcotic herbs were used as anesthesia. Judging by the fact that the wounds on the found skull healed and the patient survived, the ancient surgeons still understood what they were doing and how exactly the craniotomy should be done …
Mercy in ancient times
And one of the archaeological finds showed that people in ancient times not only performed surgical operations, but also had concepts of mercy and nobility. In 1953-1960, excavations were carried out in the Shanidar Cave, located in northern Iraq. The expedition found 9 male skeletons that belonged to Neanderthals, who lived approximately 60-30 thousand years BC. Among others, there was a skeleton of a man who died in old age, which refuted the theory that a person's life expectancy in the Stone Age was a maximum of 25 years, and all crippled ones were either killed by the tribe or taken to be eaten by wild animals …
But not only the age of the owner of the skeleton surprised scientists - the skeleton belonged to a cripple, and, apparently, in such an inferior state, he lived for more than a dozen years! The left eye socket was damaged in the skull - such wounds usually led to blindness, the foot was crushed, there are traces of severe arthritis on the twisted legs and there is an almost complete absence of teeth. And what is surprising - the cripple had no right hand at all, and it was clearly removed by surgery - the stump surface has a characteristic rounded shape, which happens after an operation.
Possessing all of the above injuries, and in our time it is not easy to get food and live to a venerable age, but this Neanderthal managed to somehow prove useful to his tribe, which for many years fed him and protected him from misfortunes. We can only guess what exactly he was so valuable and useful for his fellow tribesmen …
In the same burial, archaeologists discovered the pollen of many medicinal plants - yarrow, ephedra, marshmallow, etc. Probably, even then there were ideas about the afterlife, and what would be useful to them in the next world was formed in the graves of the deceased. Some of these plants have a narcotic effect, it is possible that they were also used for operations.
Resin eye
In 2006, excavations were carried out in the Iranian "Burnt City", which got its name from the three strongest fires that he had to survive.
Few survived this conflagration, but it was here that a unique find was made. In the "Burnt City", in a tomb, which thanks to the stone walls of resin to resist the elements of fire, an artificial eye was found, made about five thousand years ago!
Mansour Sajadi, the head of the excavation, claims that this eye belonged to a 25-30-year-old woman whose skeleton was found in a tomb. The fact that the prosthesis belongs to this particular woman can be concluded from the traces of an abscess in the orbit of the skull. Such phenomena are observed due to prolonged wearing of a foreign body.
Sajadi is convinced that the artificial eye was made from a mixture of resin mixed with some kind of animal fat. It is interesting that the prosthesis has capillaries made of the finest gold wire, no more than half a millimeter wide.
Judging by the luxurious things found in the tomb, the owner of the artificial eye belonged to a very rich and noble family that could afford to give a woman such a gift - to hide her lack from others.
And, probably, the ancient master had some ideas about anatomy, because the shape of the artificial eye and the pattern of the capillaries fully correspond to the structure of real eyes.
This prosthesis is now considered the oldest ever found. Earlier it was believed that they began to be created only in the 5th century BC.
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Natalia Trubinovskaya