3. Trepanning – the drilling of a hole into the human skull – was a frequent medical practice throughout history to treat a variety of ills, commonly resulting in the death of the patient due to the inadequacies of ancient neurosurgery.
Trepanning is a surgical technique whereby a hole is drilled into the skull, either to release built up blood pressure or expose brain tissue for operation. Believed to be the world’s oldest surgical procedure, with the earliest known examples dated to 6500 BCE in prehistoric France, more than 1,500 Neolithic skulls, representing approximately 10% of all recovered skulls from this period, depict evidence of early trepanation strongly suggesting widespread early use of the medical method. Although continuing to serve legitimate purposes in modern medicine, notably to relieve the pressures of a subdural hematoma, the historic use of trepanning was shockingly dangerous and misguided.
During the ancient era, trepanning was predominantly used to treat those considered as behaving abnormally, now recognized as sufferers of epilepsy, migraines, seizures, or mental disorders. It is also likely the practice was employed as a form of emergency surgery after severe head wounds, a common occurrence due to the prevalence of blunt stone weaponry at the time. Similarly, trepanning is believed to have been employed by pre-Columbian Mesoamericans, but at a significantly decreased rate to that of Europe. However and wherever the practice was used, the results were nevertheless comparable: the patient would likely not survive, suffering a critical loss of brain function or debilitating brain damage.