Trepanation is the intentional drilling of a hole in your skull for medical reasons or, according to its contemporary DIY practitioners, to achieve higher consciousness. New research reveals that this ancient practice dates back to the Stone Age when neolithic neurosurgeons bored holes as large as 4 inches wide in the heads of their patients. And many of them lived to tell the tale!
"The high survival rate, despite the danger of cerebral edema, infection, hemorrhage, and shock, is a clear indication of the high level of skill and experience of these early surgeons who performed the trepanation," write the researchers who studied 41 skulls from France.
From IFL Science:
Exactly why trepanation was so popular in prehistory is not clear, although some scholars believe the procedure may have been performed to relieve intracranial pressure caused by injury or pathology – as, indeed, it still is today in rare cases. On the other hand, legendary 19th-century neurologist and anthropologist Paul Broca speculated that the practice may have been linked to the belief that seizures were caused by demons who needed to be released by opening holes in the skull.
Previously:
• "Head Like A Hole" (1999) by David Pescovitz
