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Brain Surgery Was Done 3.5 Millennia Ago, Chinese Mummy Proposes

Proof of an initial form of brain surgery was indicated by a perforated skull dating back 3,600 years ago, which belonged to a mummified female discovered in the Xiaohe grave in China’s Xinjiang.
Measuring nearly 2 inches (50 mm) in diameter, the hole was believed to have been probably an initial type of craniotomy, which includes temporarily discarding a ‘flap’ of bone from the skull to grant surgeons access to the brain.

Source: Alexey Krivoshapkin / Siberian Times

The kind of surgery being carried out determines the amount of skull discarded, while screws would later be used to replace the flap. It was possibly a form of trepanation involving the ejection of a piece of bone from the skull.
The practice has been done since ancient eras, with cave paintings depicting that prehistoric people thought it would treat epileptic seizures, headaches and mental disorders.

Source: Alexey Krivoshapkin / Siberian Times

“[The wound] suggests the female, who died in her 40s, must have lived for at least a month, or even longer, after receiving the surgery,” said Zhu Hong, head of the archaeology team, who continued that around the wound, there were also traces of healing tissues.
Dating back to 1,615 BC, the mummy is one of the hundreds found in the Xiaohe ‘Little River’ Tomb complex, which was initially explored in 1934 by Swedish archaeologist Folke Bergman, but not thoroughly dug up until 2005. It’s situated 175 km west of the ancient city of Loulan.

Source: Alexey Krivoshapkin / Siberian Times

The area dates back to roughly 2,000 BC, and the DNA in the bodies was revealed to be from the east and the west. In particular, males were discovered to have chromosomes typically seen in Northern and Eastern Europe, alongside DNA found in Siberia.
The giant cemetery holds more than 330 burials, having the highest number of mummies ever discovered around the world. Mummies of adults and children, together with 15 intact ones were found, though half of the tombs were believed to have been robbed.

Source: Alexey Krivoshapkin / Siberian Times

Most of the sarcophagi discovered were made from wood, shaped like boats, interred upside down. The practice bears resemblance to how Egyptians thought boats would transport Pharaohs to the land of the ‘Gods’.
The mummies were also buried together with clothes and jewelry in small baskets, while cowhide and wool were used to wrap the bodies, protecting the corpses from sand. Four clay-covered rectangular sarcophagi were also discovered, surrounded by stakes, beside the wood ones.

Source: Alexey Krivoshapkin / Siberian Times

Six of the sarcophagi held wooden ‘bodies’ instead of corpses, each of which were the same shape, made to resemble men. Furthermore, sexual iconography was discovered throughout the site, with posts representing phalluses and vulvas put in front of each grave.
Previously, prehistoric brain surgery was recreated to comprehend medical techniques from 2.5 millennia ago, when a team of Russian experts inspected skulls discovered with elaborate surgical holes in a bid to find how initial nomadic doctors get the surgeries done.

Source: Alexey Krivoshapkin / Siberian Times

They were some of the very first instances of trepanation, the earliest form of known neurosurgery, with the process expertly conducted, indicated by proof. The earliest specimens of skulls with bore holes drilled into them were discovered in a grave in France from 6,500 BC.
However, the Ancient Egyptians, Chinese, Indians, Romans, Greeks and the early Mesoamerican civilizations did practice this as well. Even the 'father of medicine' Hippocrates advocated the process in his 400 BC tome 'On Injuries of the Head'.
The procedure was carried out by Aleksei Krivoshapkin according to ancient methods used in the Altai Mountains on the skull of a woman who had died of natural causes shortly before.
Analysis of the skulls of ancient patients found that the operations were carried out with only one tool, a bronze knife, with the surgeons carefully scraping at the skull, yet leaving behind only minimal traces of their work.
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