Why did they make holes in their heads in antiquity?

2024 Author: Seth Attwood | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 15:55

It is possible that doctors of the Stone and Bronze Ages treated the incurable Alzheimer's disease with extreme surgical interventions.

They had such a custom - to make holes in their skulls

Skulls with man-made holes are found all over the world. The oldest - 11 thousand years old, there are much younger. The average age of the finds is 6 thousand years.

Naturally, scientists are perplexed: who and why in the Stone Age performed craniotomy - an operation that is difficult even in modern times.

Could it be that the skulls of the deceased were hollow? Not at all. The patients were alive. And the most amazing thing: the nightmarish operations did not kill them. Only a few died. And most of the trepanned ones continued to live with very impressive holes in the crown. This was evidenced by the bone tissue that had grown after the operation.

People with such holes survived.

Such amazing features of "cave" trepanations have recently been revealed by studies carried out by an international group, which included German archaeologists (German Archaeological Institute in Berlin), scientists from the Russian Academy of Sciences (RAS), Moscow State University and representatives of the Ministry of Culture of the Stavropol Territory. Scientists have studied 13 perforated skulls, from among those that were discovered during excavations in the Stavropol region. Their age is just average - 5-6 thousand years. The results were reported recently in the American Journal of Physical Anthropology.

Some of the holes are very neat.

The holes in the Stavropol tortoises - oval and round, a few centimeters in diameter - were made in approximately the same place: in the parietal region, which is very difficult to operate.

The researchers, of course, first of all assumed that the holes were made clearly not for beauty, but for some medicinal purpose. The skulls were subjected to X-rays, computed tomography, to try to determine the disease that required such a radical and painful surgical intervention. But they didn't.

Locations of holes in turtles found in the Stavropol Territory.

According to Julia Gresky, representing the Germans, no injuries or tumors were found. From which scientists have made a collective conclusion: the skulls were ripped for some ritual purposes. Like, this was the rite. But the meaning of the operations remained mysterious. As well as other manipulations with skulls practiced in South America - they were not trepanned there, but transformed, forming an elongated occipital part with the help of ropes and boards. Archaeologists do not exclude: both of them could perform some important social roles, they could become priests of a certain cult, or even acquire some unusual abilities. Or at least think that they are acquiring them.

Elongated skull.

This is how the skulls were pulled out in South America.

By the way, the burials in which the perforated skulls were found testified to the high status of the deceased.

Ufologists believe that it was not without aliens - manipulations with skulls are somehow connected with them. They could operate on their own, or they could teach for something.

New bone has formed in the holes. So people survived after the operation.

Let's release the pressure in the "pot"

In the same places as ancient surgeons, Doctor of Biological Sciences, Professor Yuri Moskalenko, head of the Laboratory of Comparative Physiology of Blood Circulation, Institute of Evolutionary Physiology and Biochemistry named after Sechenov in St. Petersburg, proposes to make holes in skulls. It has long been proposing - since 1961, having presented his arguments in the prestigious journal Nature in an article entitled Variation in blood volume and oxygen availability in the human brain. A few years ago, NewScientist magazine spoke about Yuri Evgenievich's amazing ideas in an article Like a hole in the head: The return of trepanation.

The studies that Moskalenko conducted independently, and then with the support of the Beckley Foundation in Oxford, prove that craniotomy - that is, a hole made in a certain place, cures Alzheimer's disease. Moreover, it reverses age-related changes. That is, they rejuvenate.

Professor Moskalenko's technique: this is how NewScientist presented it

The cause of senile dementia is not fully understood. According to one of the hypotheses, which Professor Moskalenko adheres to, the development of the disease is facilitated by a decrease in the intensity of blood circulation in the brain. But if you make a hole in the skull of at least 4 square centimeters, then it - the intensity - will increase. And the blood flow to the brain will increase by about 10 percent.

Along the way, the reproduction of cerebrospinal fluid, which delivers nutrients, will also go more intensively. The result is healing. The hole acts like a safety valve.

There is no other way to treat Alzheimer's disease - for example with the help of any drugs - yet.

The method proposed by Yuri Moskalenko is considered controversial. And modern doctors do not dare to introduce it. And the ancients, it seems, acted more decisively: they drilled and treated. And perhaps, not only from Alzheimer's disease, but also from schizophrenia, from epilepsy, from violent and light insanity - in a word, from mental illness. There are such legends. Or hypotheses, whatever you like.

Another question: who nevertheless advised the Stone Age Aesculapians to drill their skulls? Have you realized yourself? Unlikely, ufologists believe. And it's hard to disagree with this. But…

- I think that no one taught trepanation to my distant predecessors - they themselves finished it somehow empirically, - says Yuri Evgenievich. “And we proved that such methods were beneficial. Unless, of course, the patient died in the course of treatment.

Professor Moskalenko covered the holes in the skulls with special polymer membranes. Its ancient counterparts were made of plates made of bone, leather and wood. And sometimes gold.

BY THE WAY

Unless the hands are hooks

Trepanned skulls were also found in Altai - also with holes in the crown. But later. Operations on them were carried out about 2500 years ago. Archaeologists have also found bronze instruments used by ancient surgeons. They looked rather primitive, but they turned out to be quite suitable for work. This was proved last year by a neurosurgeon from Novosibirsk, Professor Alexei Krivoshapkin.

The hole made by Professor Krivoshapkin.

The tools with which Krivoshapkin worked.

Craftsmen made exact copies of ancient tools for Aleksey - scalpels, scrapers, chisels, tweezers. And he made the required hole in the cranial bone taken from the corpse in 28 minutes. Very neat. And thus he proved: no superhuman abilities were required for the operation.

But inhuman knowledge may have been necessary.

Although, who knows, suddenly the essence, on the contrary, was the simplest: the patient complained about his head - they say, it hurts, swells, bad. The doctor decided that he should let the crap out of his head. Or drive the evil spirit out of her. But as? Through a hole. It is logical. And it helped!