It is possible that doctors of the Stone and Bronze Ages treated an incurable disease with extreme surgical intervention.
They had such a custom - to make holes in the skull
Skulls with man-made holes are found all over the world. The oldest - 11 thousand years old, there are much younger. The average age of the finds is 6 thousand years.
Naturally, scientists are perplexed: who and for what in the Stone Age performed craniotomy - an operation that is difficult even in modern times.
Could it be that the deceased's skulls were hollow? Not at all. The patients were alive. And the most amazing thing: the nightmarish operations did not kill them. Only a few died. And most of the trepanned ones continued to live with very impressive holes in the crown. This was evidenced by the bone tissue that had grown after the operation.
People with such holes survived
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Such amazing features of "cave" trepanations have recently been revealed by studies carried out by an international group, which included German archaeologists (German Archaeological Institute in Berlin), scientists from the Russian Academy of Sciences (RAS), Moscow State University and representatives of the Ministry of Culture of the Stavropol Territory. Scientists have studied 13 perforated skulls, from among those that were discovered during excavations in the Stavropol region. Their age is just average - 5-6 thousand years. The results were reported recently in the American Journal of Physical Anthropology.
Some holes are very neat
The holes in the Stavropol tortoises - oval and round, several centimeters in diameter - were made in approximately the same place: in the parietal region, which is very difficult to operate.
The researchers, of course, first of all assumed: the holes were made clearly not for beauty, but for some medicinal purpose. The skulls were subjected to X-rays, computed tomography, to try to determine the disease that required such a radical and painful surgery. But they didn't.
Locations of holes in turtles found in the Stavropol Territory
According to Julia Gresky, representing the Germans, no injuries or tumors were found. From which scientists have made a collective conclusion: the skulls were ripped for some ritual purposes. Like, this was the rite. But the meaning of the operations remained mysterious. As well as other manipulations with skulls practiced in South America - they were not trepanned there, but transformed by forming an elongated occipital part with the help of ropes and boards. Archaeologists do not exclude: both of them could play some important social roles, could become priests of a certain cult, or even acquire some unusual abilities. Or at least think that they are acquiring them.
Elongated skull
This is how skulls were pulled out in South America
By the way, the burials in which the perforated skulls were found testified to the high status of the deceased.
Ufologists, on the other hand, believe that it was not without aliens - manipulations with skulls are somehow connected with them. They could operate on their own, or they could teach for something.
New bone has formed in the holes. So people survived after the operation
Release the pressure in the "pot"
In the same places as ancient surgeons, Doctor of Biological Sciences, Professor Yuri Moskalenko, head of the Laboratory of Comparative Physiology of Blood Circulation of the Sechenov Institute of Evolutionary Physiology and Biochemistry in St. Petersburg, proposes to make holes in the skull. It has long been proposing - since 1961, having presented its arguments in the prestigious journal Nature in an article entitled Variation in blood volume and oxygen availability in the human brain (Variations in the volume of blood and oxygen that wash over the human brain). A few years ago, NewScientist magazine spoke about Yuri Evgenievich's amazing ideas in an article Like a hole in the head: The return of trepanation.
The studies that Moskalenko conducted independently, and then with the support of the Beckley Foundation in Oxford, prove that craniotomy - that is, a hole made in a certain place, cures Alzheimer's disease. Moreover, it reverses age-related changes. That is, they rejuvenate.
Professor Moskalenko's methodology: this is how NewScientist presented it
The cause of senile dementia is not fully understood. According to one of the hypotheses, which Professor Moskalenko adheres to, the development of the disease is facilitated by a decrease in the intensity of blood circulation in the brain. But if you make a hole in the skull at least 4 square centimeters, then it - the intensity - will increase. And the blood flow to the brain will increase by about 10 percent.
Along the way, the reproduction of cerebrospinal fluid, which delivers nutrients, will also be more intensive. The result is healing. The hole acts like a safety valve.
There is no other way to treat Alzheimer's disease - for example with the help of some drugs - yet.
The method proposed by Yuri Moskalenko is considered controversial. And modern doctors do not dare to introduce it. And the ancients, it seems, acted more decisively: they drilled and treated. And perhaps not only from Alzheimer's disease, but also from schizophrenia, from epilepsy, from violent and slight insanity - in a word, from mental illness. There are such legends. Or hypotheses, whatever you like.
Another question: who nevertheless advised the Stone Age Aesculapians to drill skulls? Have you realized yourself? Hardly, ufologists believe. And it's hard to disagree with that. However…
- I think that no one taught trepanation to my distant predecessors - they themselves finished it somehow empirically, - says Yuri Evgenievich. “And we proved that such methods were beneficial. Unless, of course, the patient died in the course of treatment.
Professor Moskalenko covered the holes in the skulls with special polymer membranes. His ancient counterparts were plates made of bone, leather and wood. And sometimes gold.
BTW
Unless hands are hooks
Trepanned skulls were also found in Altai - also with holes in the crown. But later. Operations on them were carried out about 2500 years ago. Archaeologists have also found bronze instruments used by ancient surgeons. They looked rather primitive, but turned out to be quite suitable for work. This was proved last year by a neurosurgeon from Novosibirsk, Professor Alexei Krivoshapkin.
The hole made by professor Krivoshapkin
Tools with which Krivoshapkin worked
Craftsmen made exact copies of ancient instruments for Aleksey - scalpels, scrapers, chisels, tweezers. And he made the required hole in the cranial bone taken from the corpse in 28 minutes. Very neat. And thus he proved that no superhuman abilities were required for the operation.
But inhuman knowledge may have been necessary.
Although, who knows, all of a sudden the essence, just the opposite, was simple: the patient complained about his head - they say, it hurts, swells, bad. The doctor decided that he should let the crap out of his head. Or drive the evil spirit out of her. But as? Through a hole. It's logical. And it helped!
Vladimir LAGOVSKY
