Prehistoric Brain Surgery was Real: Amazing Questions and Issues are Raised

Stone-Age Advanced Surgical Procedures, on Human Craniums, were Actually Done

By Joseph Andrew Settanni

This is a discussion regarding the absolutely amazing fact of there having been true brain operations performed as early as about 40,000 years ago. Of course, many people are generally prideful of the impressive accomplishments and achievements of this 21st century technocratic civilization that increasingly, in fact, encompasses the entire global reality, through the fuller internationalization of economics, communications, transportation, and all other interconnected and interrelated parts, of this rather terrene cosmos. But, is this haughty attitude appropriate? Science and philosophy ought to begin with a sense of wonder.

So many things are technologically fantastic as to then become, in a sense, a blur in the minds of most contemporaries as to the vast totality of what exists. Furthermore, it has significantly helped the human race that each generation born simply assumes that what exists has always been in that there is, in fact, no fear that the children would be somehow mentally (or otherwise) incapable of handling the latest inventions. This has been definitely useful in a utilitarian sense, among other consequences.

Thus, e. g., young children, barely ceasing to be infants, are normally expected to play with low-level computer games. And yet, when it comes to the historical past, to what is especially long past, ancient people tend to be usually underestimated and, consequently, underappreciated; millions assume that the vast majority of the large physical structures of ancient times, as with the notable Egyptian or Mayan pyramids, were either constructed by extraterrestrial aliens or, at least, humans had required their help.

One aspect or area of medical technology can be dealt with here, as a way of creatively illustrating how disorienting an underestimation is, when directed particularly toward the primitive past. What will be discussed is reflections upon the phenomenon, the occurrence, of drilling holes into human heads, not matters concerning any techniques, allied implements, or such very specifically related facts. For those interested in these details, please consult the references and bibliography attached to this article.

Incredible But True

It has been scientifically and anthropologically known, for some time (since the 19th century), that Stone Age people did a kind of brain surgery called “trephining.” Trephining (AKA trepanning), as medical texts would note, was the first known surgical procedure. It involves cutting a hole through the cranium for getting at the brain encased by it. But, what is now to be curiously and briefly talked about here does not, however, concern, as to its proper subject matter, either the more advanced Copper, Bronze, or Iron Age endeavors pertaining to such past doctoring practices.

This matter ought to be put into a large perspective so that readers can better and more fully appreciate the reality of what is being talked about concerning what was obviously accomplished under extremely primitive conditions of life. There were, among other pleasant conveniences, no modern surgery rooms equipped with a variety of helpful tools and other such appropriate things thought logically necessary for correctly enabling the best performance of such delicate operations; otherwise, someone’s brains could get scrambled up improperly and cause a great deal of harm or, perhaps, death itself.

On the other hand, what is discussed necessarily raises the highly important question as to what should or ought to be correctly and properly classified as primitive. Is an advanced form of surgery that can, in fact, easily lead to the killing of the prospective patient, if done incorrectly, be simply regarded as truly primitive in nature?

And yet, what is still always highly incredible is the astounding fact that people, when under physically unsuitable and ghastly conditions of long ago, did still live after having a holes dug into their heads; modern anesthetics and an entire panoply of supportive medicinal treatments, of course, did not exist back then, nor were they even conceivable to quite very ancient and, moreover, genuinely prehistoric people.

What were significantly and instructively lacking, meaning completely absent, in that entire prehistoric era? There were, at a basic minimum, no great cities, schools or colleges of medicine or brain surgery, research institutions organized for gaining and retaining scientific knowledge, libraries, or any of a vast and wide variety of extensive or suitable means of so acquiring, organizing, classifying, and preserving knowledge, as is easily typical of advanced societies and entire civilizations.

It is an era distinctly and absolutely prior to all types of modern communication and transportation or, for that matter, without the existence of, e. g., the ancient Roman military roads or even the basic benefits of ancient Egyptian civilization. The communication of knowledge was only local, not across cosmopolitan communities.

The vast means and ability to be able to critically acquire and actually utilize the particular knowledge necessary for rightly employing surgical techniques necessary for brains operations were, supposedly, nonexistent. In short, realistically speaking, it really was, after all, just the Stone Age. And yet, on the contrary, people had, in fact, received such medical treatment, during the Neolithic Era (circa 7000 BC), that ought to still normally astound commentators in the early 21st century.

One might still assume, nevertheless, that successful cranial trephining should have been extremely so rare as to have almost been totally impossible and definitely beyond the primitive capacities and allied capabilities of the people of that tremendously long ago time. But, that, obviously, was not really true.

Unlike, e. g., 18th century head-hole drilling exercises, according to studies done, it is quite fantastic to relate that the majority of the primitive people had lived, after that extreme experience, in the Late Stone Age; however, in the 1700s, as part of the defined modern age, virtually all such patients died, which should cause a pause of thought and reflection.

Anthropologists have verified that, based upon the later growth areas around such holes in the skulls, most people (though not all) did actually live after those amazing operations under extremely primitive conditions—no antibiotics, antiseptics, emergency care units, hygienic standards, staffs of consulting physicians, etc. This, again and again, therefore, both existentially and phenomenologically raises the necessary question as to a debate: What is (definitionally) primitive?

Can it be truly answered, however, to anyone’s full and unadulterated satisfaction without being, sooner or later, challenged by the knowledge that primitive societies had practiced trephining, as a part of their (normal) medical treatments? It was an archaic activity done under primitive conditions, done without the vastly elaborated social organization and cognate civilizational accoutrements normally expected by informed or, perhaps, average denizens of the modern age.

What is being carefully put under critical examination is, consequently, the very problematic nature of axiomatically defining the often stereotypical viewpoint associated with the, thus, presumed “primitive” doings of merely Stone Age people. What are actions or goings-on seemingly representative of social or cultural primitivism, if such can be here rationally defined with precision? Or, would the noted medical phenomenon of brain surgery be an exception to the general rule as to what then ought to be positively regarded as being exemplary of primitive existence?

Such (civilizationally deprived) ancient humans, without possessing any truly advanced engineering capabilities and related machinery had clearly constructed, during just the prehistoric Dawn of Man, such highly impressive sites, e. g., as England’s famous Stonehenge. Even today, many experts do yet concur, it would still be a rather remarkable construction project. There are matters to profoundly consider and even, perhaps, philosophize about concerning possible implications and ramifications.

Primitive and primitivism, when used for accurately descriptive denotations, may so need to be then greatly redefined, if they are to be retained for dealing with discussions of Stone Age brain surgery that did occur under notably archaic, primeval, circumstances. Or, more correctly speaking in specific terms of the surely significant and difficult realities of such relatively advanced cranial operations, performed under prehistorically ancient circumstances, is it as equally true to properly denote what occurred as being “modern” surgeries? This pertains to the same end result (possible removal, e. g., of a tumor) as is still determined nowadays by such a particular surgical situation, meaning as a simply valid medical achievement.

It is so readily granted that certainly better tools, professional-grade surgical instruments, are now available today, however, what was then done was not absolutely different from equally successful operations completed, in contemporary times, as to the main essence of what occurs. Must all or any people who had just lived under primitive circumstances/conditions be definitionally called primitive people?

Or, on the contrary, is that just a simple tautology signifying nothing of ultimate substance, as to the integral and inherent humanity of those sensate and noetic beings who once occupied this same planet? Perhaps, it’s best to drop possible prejudices and just judge these matters more objectively.

The successful removal of a brain tumor, in 7000 BC, with the patient living as before (but without the prior terrible pain within a skull) is primarily of the same essential value as the medical relief given to someone in the 21st century. Is it not? A potentially life-saving operation has merit, especially if the alternative may almost always mean an agonizing and prolonged death, a certain fatality, in the total absence of any surgery. Certain concrete and not abstract realities, after all, need be confronted.

Presumably, a Neolithic person may have thought, one supposes, that any brain surgery was a rather dubious choice that only tremendously desperate people would willingly choose for the sake of avoiding the then current reality of intense pain inside his own human skull. Desperation, as is well known, still emotionally and psychologically motivates many people in contemporary times. If history is any guide, human nature, by definition, has not radically or otherwise changed to any fundamental extent.

It was clearly not, presumably, an easy or just natural choice, for uncomplicated consideration, among possible treatments to be somehow administered by the local witchdoctor or shaman in the village or, perhaps, one’s tribal band of just fellow primitives. This is something surely worthy of significant and cogent contemplation, as to the continuous historical evolution of humanity, over the extended course of many millenniums.

It is not, therefore, a very small topic of thought, though no writings had recorded any of those events, by definition, of prehistory. And, this present article looking into this subject is merely suggestive of further thought properly geared toward further appropriate depths of greatly contemplative cognition and much refined reflection. It can be always said that none of this, at a minimum, is ever a supposed case of Ripley’s Believe It or Not. The truth is usually stranger than (most) fiction.

Of course, admittedly, there were basically three general reasons, as is reasonably adduced by various researchers, concerning why trepanning was done; these include simply superstitious reasons to remove evil spirits from the mind, use as war trophies for totemistic symbols or amulets, or, as suggested above, for actually needed medical reasons requiring some such legitimate surgery.

Conclusion

Prehistoric man had capacities and capabilities that were not so absolutely inferior to modern man, as is illustrated strongly by the proven brain surgeries that were performed, as a very major understatement, under extremely medically sparse conditions. No well-equipped hospitals, e. g., were present during the entire Neolithic Era, which so barely suggests the true magnitude, the incredible enormity, of such truly astonishing accomplishments. Primitive conditions do not axiomatically equate with people being mere primitives.

Of course, it can be properly noted that in parts of Africa, Latin America, and Melanesia trepanning is still practiced today and for all of the same reasons, as was noted in this article. Speculation, however, would have it that medical needs would not have been the major purpose of such an activity, whether at 10,000, 20,000, or even 40,000 years ago among Cro-Magnon Man.

On the other hand, a great pain in the head, millenniums ago, may have existentially forced people to seek almost any possible treatment, inclusive of the extreme measure of cranial surgery. The varied accomplishments of humanity have, in any event, always ensured that the truth can surpass any fiction, including, in fact, totally before the existence of any written records of men on earth.

Bibliography

Mark Edmonds, Stone Tools and Society.
C. F. C. Hawkes, The Prehistoric Foundations of Europe.
Catherine Perle, The Early Neolithic in Greece.
Christopher Smith, Late Stone Age Hunters of the British Isles.
Julian Thomas, Understanding the Neolithic.

Internet References

http://www.suite101.com/content/a-hole-in-the-head-the-ancient-surgery-of-trepanning-a262516
http://www.cerebromente.org.br/n02/historia/trepan.htm
www.associatedcontent.com/.../trephination_the_earliest_form_of_brain.html
library.thinkquest.org/.../printer.php?.../brain/surgery...page=../brain/brain0...
forums.skadi.net/showthread.php?t=131625
www.crystalinks.com/ancientmedicine.html
download.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140.../fulltext
www.brain-surgery.com/history.html