An ancient skull with burr-hole holes in the temporal bones appears to show the earliest record of ear surgery known to humans. The researchers who made the discovery believe the remains, thought to be female, show “the first known radical mastoidectomy in human history.”
Inflammation and infection of the mastoid bone can occur following an ear infection, and before the advent of medicine it was often fatal. The authors of a new paper published in the journal Scientific Reports describe an ancient skull with evidence of surgical intervention to overcome such a disease, as well as evidence of bone regeneration that shows the prehistoric woman survived the procedure.
Curious skeletal remains have been unearthed in Burgos, Spain, from a burial chamber built in the 4th millennium BC that housed nearly 100 bodies. As The History Blog notes, these findings show the skull to be about 5,300 years old.
Skull broken, but neurocranium was found intact. It also showed missing teeth and thyroid cartilage ossification enough to indicate that the female owner was of advanced age at the time of death. Computed tomography scans revealed that both ear canals had been surgically replaced due to trepanation, an ancient surgical technique in which a hole is drilled or scraped into the human skull.
“Despite the cut marks, it is difficult to conclude the type of tool used to remove bone tissue, most likely a sharp tool with circular motions,” said the study authors. It shows that it was used to do it.”
While paleopathological analyzes of ancient skulls have found remains with traces of mastoiditis, this is the first finding with signs of trepanation, the authors say.
“The hypothesis put forward in this study is that the person with the skull probably had both ears surgically removed,” the authors write. It appears that the procedure was performed on the right ear first, because of ear pathology that was worrisome enough to warrant that.”
We are sure it was a painful procedure for a desperate prehistoric man. However, this new discovery is also important because it provides the oldest evidence of this type of surgery and probably represents the first in human history.
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