Andean People Already Perfected Skull Surgery Thousands of Years Ago
Ancient practitioners used various tools to create trepanations of distinct sizes and shapes. Photo: Danielle Kurin
Kurin doesn’t consider drilling a hole in someone’s head a form of torture. “We can see where the trepanations are. We can see that they’re shaving the hair. We see the black smudge of an herbal remedy they put over the wound,” she said. “To me, those are signs that the intention was to save the life of the sick or injured individual.”
With most of the trepanned crania already studied residing in museums such as the Smithsonian Institution, the remains excavated by Kurin from the Andahuaylas caves presently comprise perhaps the largest well-contextualized collection of trepanned skulls in the world.
“Most were collected by archaeologists a century ago and so we don’t have good contextual information,” she explained.
Kurin doesn’t consider drilling a hole in someone’s head a form of torture. “We can see where the trepanations are. We can see that they’re shaving the hair. We see the black smudge of an herbal remedy they put over the wound,” she said. “To me, those are signs that the intention was to save the life of the sick or injured individual.”
With most of the trepanned crania already studied residing in museums such as the Smithsonian Institution, the remains excavated by Kurin from the Andahuaylas caves presently comprise perhaps the largest well-contextualized collection of trepanned skulls in the world.
“Most were collected by archaeologists a century ago and so we don’t have good contextual information,” she explained.
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22 August 2023
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