Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2024/07/16/stone-age-humans-had-4-inch-holes-drilled-in-their-skulls-to-free-the-demons-inside.html
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Once again, contributed by Allan Rose Hill.
Trepanation as a topic; wow.
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Humans before the invention of anesthesia are just incredibly tough, I damn near cry if I bang my head on a shelf, let alone have a hole drilled in my skull.
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I remember reading that the hole wasn’t so much drilled as scraped and chiselled with sharpened flints. Ouch.
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I probably don’t want to know; but there’s “incredibly tough” and there’s “not strong enough to wriggle free of the people holding you in place” and the skeletal record for both cases looks identical.
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From the link in the link:
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1878875024011823?via%3Dihub
The trepanations observed in the cranium from the anthropological collection of the MNHN were obtained by different techniques, from scraping to grooving, from drilling to cutting using a sharp instrument (made of stone or iron). Hole features depend on the method used for the trepanation as given below and in Fig.3.
Scraping
The scraping technique (Fig.3 A) involves the gradual abrasion of the outer skull table and diploe with exposure of the inner table, which can be scraped or carefully broken.26 The tool used was generally lithic, with a flat abrasive surface. Multifaceted stones or advanced tools such as scrapers (raspers) were also employed in this technique.23 The obtained perforation generally has an ovoid shape with a large abrasion ring around the hole, with external inclination.29 This is the oldest technique for trepanation and was the most widely practiced in the Neolithic period.15
Grooving
The grooving technique (Fig.3 B) involves circumscribing a circular or oval portion of skull bone by repeated cuts with a sharp-tipped stone until a disc of bone can be removed.26 In practice, the bone is pierced by applying pressure with a sharp instrument that is repeatedly passed back along the groove to the diploe.30
Drilling
This technique (Fig.3 C) involves drilling the skull bone with a hard, sharp stone or metal element until a truncated conical hole -the diameter is larger in the outer cranial table than in the inner oneis obtained with a circular contour.29,31 The cutting edge is clean and without abrasions surrounding the hole, even though grooves or micro-fractures may be present.31
Linear cutting with angular intersection (rectangular incisions)
This technique (Fig.3 D) involves four straight incisions intersecting at right angles and the removal of the intermediate fragment.26 This method, scarcely employed in Europe, has been practiced mainly in South America. This type of trepanation was initially performed with flint, obsidian, or other hard stone knives, and later with metal tools, resulting in various polygonal shapes, mainly rectangular. A curved metal knife (tumi) was used for this purpose in Peru.32
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Seems like bringing up “demons” in the headline is unnecessarily dismissive and disrespectful of the skilled surgeons who performed this procedure, given that the article itself says that this may have been done for legitimate medical reasons.
“On the one hand, it may have been done as an emergency procedure to relieve pressure, as is sometimes still done in modern medicine. On the other hand, some anthropologist from 200 years ago speculated that maybe it was about demons. So let’s just assume that it was definitely about demons.”
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Is freeing demons not a legitimate medical reason?
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Now that’s what I call a deep cut. (Pun not intended.)
ETA: Wow, that page is like a time capsule
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They could have gotten them loaded up on some sort of medicinal herb that either numbed the area, or put them in an altered or inebriated state that aided in the procedure.
Or had their mothers in the corner threatening to “Really give them something to cry about.”
Also - turns out most demons are grey and squishy.
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Dearest BB writers. Please ask the internet to convert measurements for you or remember that an inch is 25.4 mm and go from there. 5.5 cm (2.2 inches) and 4 inches(10.1cm) are a long distance apart.
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I thought of that when I saw the headline, but the article says that some holes were indeed 10 cm in diameter. At that size, you might as well just lift off the top of the cranium.
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Holes in the head, demons and spirits.
It’s like the cliche about how every ancient artifact contemporary researchers don’t recognize or understand must have been for “religious purposes.”
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For a circular opening, use a prepared Spanish 8 Reales coin if the opening has a diameter of no more than 30mm, and that to allow room for stitches and for full coverage.
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For that matter, there’s the assumption that they’re demon worshippers. Maybe they drilled holes to let the Angels inside.
… they wouldn’t use the same chemicals as we do now, but they might have had something 
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My local Lord* got his head drilled only a few decades ago. It doesn’t seem to have affected his personality much…
*I know him as ‘Lord Neidpath’, aka ‘that bloke wot owns most of the land round here’, but he’s accrued more titles and names as relatives have died.
