- Surgeons were carrying out complicated skull operations
in medieval times, the remains of a body found at an archaeological dig
show.
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- A skull belonging to a 40-year-old peasant man, who lived
between 960 and 1100AD, is the firmest evidence yet of cranial surgery,
say its discoverers.
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- The remains, found in Yorkshire, show the man survived
an otherwise fatal blow to the head thanks to surgery.
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- Nearly 700 skeletons were unearthed by English Heritage
at a site near Malton.
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- Complex surgery
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- Scientists have been examining the remains from the now
deserted village of Wharram Percy.
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- Once a thriving community built on sheep farming, it
fell into steep decline after the Black Death and was eventually completely
abandoned.
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- The skull in question, dating back to the 11th century,
had been struck a near-fatal blow by a blunt weapon, causing a severe
depressed
fracture on the left hand side.
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- Closer examination revealed the victim had been given
life-saving surgery called trepanning.
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- A rectangular area of the scalp, measuring 9cm by 10cm,
would have been lifted to allow the depressed bone segments to be carefully
removed.
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- This would have relieved the pressure on the
brain.
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- Roman and Greek writings document the technique of
trepanning
for treating skull fractures, but there is no mention of it in Anglo-Saxon
literature.
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- Some historians have theorised that western Europe was
deprived of such surgical knowledge for centuries after the fall of
Alexandria
in the 7th century.
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- Violent times
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- Dr Simon Mays, skeletal biologist at English Heritage's
Centre for Archaeology, said: "This skull is the best evidence we
have that such surgery to treat skull fractures was being performed in
England at the time.
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- "It predates medieval written accounts of the
procedure
by at least 100 years and is a world away from the notions that Anglo-Saxon
healers were all about spells and potions."
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- Skulls dating back to Neolithic times show trepanning
was performed on individuals with no head wounds.
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- Historians believe this was presumably to treat other
ailments, possibly including mental illness.
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- The skull of the 40-year-old Yorkshire peasant shows
the fracture healed well.
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- Scientists believe the hole that remained would have
eventually closed over with hard scar tissue.
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- But they have questioned how a peasant would have been
able to afford this complicated medical treatment.
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- Examination of the other skeletons at the site revealed
high levels of malnutrition, disease and stunted growth.
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- Dr Mays said: "Medical skills were largely reserved
for the elite.
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- "So the treatment handed out to Wharram's peasant
doesn't square at all with our knowledge of the period.
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- "It seems most probable that the operation was
performed
by an itinerant healer of unusual skill, whose medical acumen was handed
down through oral tradition."
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- Ten of the other skeletons, including a child, also
showed
signs of head injury caused by blunt objects.
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- Dr Mays said: "Violence at Wharram seemed to involve
objects that were near at hand, like farming tools.
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- "The peasant was probably involved in the medieval
equivalent of a pub fight, or could have been the victim of a robbery or
a family feud."
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- © BBC MMIV
- http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/3714992.stm
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