The earliest known surgery was carried out more than 5,000 years ago. One of the procedures performed was trepanation, which involved drilling a hole in the skull. The purpose of this operation is not always clear, but, in different contexts, it has been done to relieve pressure on the brain, to cure headaches, to remove damaged bone, or to release evil spirits. Evidence for trepanation comes from archaeological sites in the Americas, Oceania, and Europe, suggesting it was a remarkably widespread practice.
Anthropologists in the early twentieth century reported that trepanation was still occurring in a number of places, notably Algeria, elsewhere in Africa, Bolivia, Peru, and Oceania. Although it is a relatively difficult and delicate procedure, survival rates reported by anthropologists, and skulls from archaeological contexts showing post-operative healing, suggest an impressive rate of success.
Instruments on display at the Pitts River Museum at Oxford University
The trepanation tools pictured below were collected in the Aurès (east Atlas) Mountains in Algeria. They were donated to the Museum in 1913. With the tools (in a small box at the bottom of the picture) there are also small pieces of bone taken from a man’s skull during a trepanation operation.
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The surgical instruments displayed in the Museum come from Europe, Asia, Oceania, and Africa: however many of them are designed for carrying out similar operations, in particular circumcision, cauterizing, severing the umbilical cord, blood letting, opening boils and abscesses, and removal of the uvula (the small piece of soft tissue that hangs down at the back of the throat) and tonsils.
Text Source : https://prm.web.ox.ac.uk/files/surgicalpdf
