The earliest document regarding the history of cranioplasty from the Ottoman era (original) (raw)
Related papers
Ancient Legacy of Cranial Surgery
Archives of Trauma Research, 2012
Hypothesis Cranial injury, as it is known today, is not a new concern of modern medicine. On stepping on the earth, the man was in reality encountered with various types of injuries, particularly those of a cranial nature. Leading a life, whether wild or civilized, has always been associated with injuries for human race from the very beginning of birth. Therefore, managing cases of this type has gradually forced him to establish and fix strategies and approaches to handle the dilemma. This study is thus focused on tracing the first documented traumatized cranial cases ever reported, ranging from those trials attributed to our ancient predecessors to the identical examples in the present time.
The antiquity of cranial surgery in Europe and in the Mediterranean basin
Comptes Rendus De L Academie Des Sciences Serie Ii Fascicule a-Sciences De La Terre Et Des Planetes, 2001
Through personal observations and a literature study we have made a synthesis of the most ancient healed trephinations in Europe and in the Mediterranean basin. Cases of small dimensions that were carried out with simple techniques are found in the Mesolithic populations from North Africa, Ukraine and Portugal. The first Neolithic examples of trephinations are extensive and have been realised with more sophisticated techniques. This suggests that the development of agriculture was accompanied by the command of new procedures in the field of surgery. 2001 Académie des sciences / Éditions scientifiques et médicales Elsevier SAS trephination / Neolithic / Mesolithic / North Africa / Ukraine / Portugal / Europa Résumé -Ancienneté de la chirurgie crânienne en Europe et dans le Bassin méditerranéen. À partir d'observations et de la littérature, nous avons effectué une synthèse des plus anciennes trépanations cicatrisées en Europe et dans le Bassin méditerranéen. Des cas de trépanations de petites dimensions et réalisées avec des techniques simples sont retrouvés dans les populations mésolithiques de l'Afrique du Nord, de l'Ukraine et du Portugal. Les premiers exemples néolithiques sont de vastes dimensions, réalisés avec des techniques plus complexes. Cela suggère que le développement de l'agriculture s'est accompagné très tôt d'une maîtrise de gestes nouveaux dans le domaine chirurgical. 2001 Académie des sciences / Éditions scientifiques et médicales Elsevier SAS trépanations / Néolithique / Mésolithique / Afrique du Nord / Ukraine / Portugal / Europe
International Journal of Osteoarchaeology, 2023
Intermittently we witness how evidence from one academic field can have a significant impact on researchers working in other specialties; in this case, the fields of osteoarchaeology and medical history. In this issue an article by Micarelli et al. (2023) entitled An unprecedented case of cranial surgery in Longobard Italy presents a fascinating example of surgery from the early medieval period. A cross shaped area of inflammatory change on the outer table of the skull of a 6th-8th century female from Castel Trosino is described. This cruciform change also contains linear parallel scratch marks suggestive of the use of surgical instruments. At the centre of the cross is an oval area where the bone is markedly thinned in a way that would be compatible with a healing trepanation, where the outer table of bone was previously scraped as part of the surgical procedure. The excavated human remains from Castel Trosino provide us with key evidence for surgical treatment in the period after the Roman Empire but before the ‘rational surgery’ of the high medieval period - at a time when the paucity of medical texts in Europe had left us in the dark as to what treatments were being undertaken, and how operations were performed. It shows how the cruciform incision to expose the bones of the skull was in use in Italy several hundred years before the first medical texts describing it were written. For this reason, the archaeological case described here will be of great interest to medical historians investigating the development of surgery in Europe, and the degree to which the tradition of medicine in the Roman Empire may have been transmitted and developed within Italy prior to the translation of Arabic medical texts from the eleventh century onwards.
New light on cranial surgery in ancient Rome
In exceptional cases, archaeology can shed new light on patients, diseases, and therapeutic interventions of the remote past. Cranial trepanation, an operation probably developed towards the end of the palaeolithic period and rooted in a mixture of empiricism and magical belief, has been widely documented from both the Old World and the New World since late neolithic times, showing the antiquity of the surgical approach to disease treatment. 1-7 This type of surgery was mainly associated with traumatic lesions, but in most cases the underlying diseases, if any, remain unknown. Evidence of cranial trepanations on children is extremely rare, 1-8 which may reflect a lower childhood frequency of the disorders that were treated by cranial surgery, an uneven preservation of fragile skeletal remains, or a reluctance of physicians in ancient times to subject children to potentially life-threatening surgical procedures. Cranial trepanation is recorded in Greco-Roman medicine, first by Hippocrates (460-355 BC). The Hippocratic corpus, Celsus (first half of the first century AD), Heliodorus (second half of the first century AD), and Galen (end of the second century AD), recommended trepanation for splintered fractures of the cranial vault and for closed head traumas, 9,13 but, at present, there is no decisive evidence that the Greco-Roman medical authors understood the role of craniotomy in the relief of endogenous "disease of the head", considered by Pliny the Elder as the third most painful illness of mankind. 14 Despite the rich literary record, the skeletal evidence documenting cranial trepanation in Greco-Roman medicine is scarce. Few trepanned Roman skulls are known from regions that were within the confines of the Empire, 1,3,6-8,15,16 and just two examples have been reported from Italy. 7,17,18 In these cases, all concerning adults, there is no trace of lesions, other than violent trauma, 16 that might have prompted cranial surgery. In 1995, the skeleton of a hydrocephalic child was excavated from a cemetery that was probably part of a villa in suburban Rome, on the site of the ancient town of Fidenae. 19 The child was 5-6 years old, on the basis of the teeth, and was dated to about the end of the first or the start of the second century AD on archaeological context. The remarkably well-preserved cranium of this child (figure 1) is a fine example of trepanation, which may have
A previously undescribed cranial surgery technique in the Carpathian Basin 10th century CE
International Journal of Osteoarchaeology, 2022
In this paper, the authors give a new insight to the indication and preparation of trepanations through the analysis of a newly discovered case of 10th-century-CE surgical trepanation found in the material of Sárrétudvari-Poroshalom. We also intend to outline the implications of this particular case to the general methodology of trepanation research. We estimated basic anthropological data (sex and age-at-death) and performed analyses of paleopathological and activity-related lesions. Computed tomography, radiocarbon, and genetic analyses were also conduced. Beside other prior traumas, two codependent lesions were detected on the right parietal bone with no sign of healing. In this lesion complex, an original sharp force trauma was observable surrounded by two curved, intentionally created furrows, which can be interpreted as attempted surgical trepanation presumably performed with a U-shaped gouge. The results of the analysis of activity-related changes and archeological examination corroborate the assumption that the injuries described on the skull may have been, indeed, acquired during activities connected to military lifestyle, and the individual may have been a high-ranking military leader in his community. This unique case has paramount importance providing more detailed knowledge of past medical practices. The application of U-shaped gouge has not been formerly documented in the literature, which opens a new perspective both in the osteological investigation of these interventions and the archeological research concerning ancient medical technology. Our results may suggest a possible mode of tool use, and aid future reconstruction attempts concerning the hypothesized 10th-century-CE trepan from Tiszaeszlár-Bashalom.
Cranial deformation and trephination in the Middle East
Bulletins Et Memoires De La Societe D Anthropologie De Paris, 1988
The practice of trephination and deforming the human skull in the ancient Middle East is reported here. Both « treatments » seem to have occur during the Neolithic and Chalcolithic periods. After the Neolithic, cranial deformation became relatively rare while the frequency of threphination continued and even increased in Roman times. The « surgical operation » of the skull was performed by two different techniques : 1) a « round » incision of the bone, found in all historic periods ; 2) an « angular » incision confined to the Iron and Byzantine periods at Lachish and Timna. The latter type seems to be « imported » from North Africa. The role of Jewish « doctors » in performing these cultural practices during the Roman period is discussed.
International Journal of Osteoarchaeology
The Longobard necropolis of Castel Trosino dates from the 6th to the 8th century CE. Among the tombs excavated, the skull of an older female shows the first evidence of a cross-shaped bone modification on a living subject. Macroscopic, microscopic, and CT scan analyses revealed signs of at least two sets of scraping marks. Specifically, SEM analysis shows that perimortem bone-scraping traces are present on the skull. Both healed and non-healed defects suggest that the woman has received at least twice intentional bone modifications to address her condition. This is the first evidence of a cross-shaped therapeutic intervention on a living subject.
The management of cranial injuries in antiquity and beyond
Neurosurgical Focus, 2007
✓Cranial injuries were among the earliest neurosurgical problems faced by ancient physicians and surgeons. In this review, the authors trace the development of neurosurgical theory and practice for the treatment of cranial injuries beginning from the earliest ancient evidence available to the collapse of the Greco–Roman civilizations. The earliest neurosurgical procedure was trephination, which modern scientists believe was used to treat skull fractures in some civilizations. The Egyptian papyri of Edwin Smith provide a thorough description of 27 head injuries with astute observations of clinical signs and symptoms, but little information on the treatment of these injuries. Hippocrates offered the first classification of skull fractures and discussion of which types required trephining, in addition to refining this technique. Hippocrates was also the first to understand the basis of increased intracranial pressure. After Hippocrates, the physicians of the Alexandrian school provided...
Paleoneurosurgical aspects of Proto-Bulgarian artificial skull deformations
Neurosurgical Focus, 2010
Paleoneurosurgery represents a comparatively new developing direction of neurosurgery dealing with archaeological skull and spine finds and studying their neurosurgical aspects. Artificial skull deformation, as a bone artifact, naturally has been one of the main paleoneurosurgical research topics. Traditionally, the relevant neurosurgical literature has analyzed in detail the intentional skull deformations in South America's tribes. However, little is known about the artificial skull deformations of the Proto-Bulgarians, and what information exists is mostly due to anthropological studies. The Proto-Bulgarians originated from Central Asia, and distributed their skull deformation ritual on the Balkan Peninsula by their migration and domination. Proto-Bulgarian artificial skull deformation was an erect or oblique form of the anular type, and was achieved by 1 or 2 pressure bandages that were tightened around a newborn's head for a sufficiently long period. The intentional skul...