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Saturday Afternoon Strings: Chris Thile and Michael Daves at NPR

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Love-Child of Cassandra and Sisyphus12/21/2013 2:46:16 pm PST

They have holes in their heads…

A STUDY OF PERUVIAN TREPANATION IN 1000 YEAR OLD SKULLS

Evidence shows that healers in Peru practised trepanation — a surgical procedure that involves removing a section of the cranial vault using a hand drill or a scraping tool — more than 1,000 years ago to treat a variety of ailments, from head injuries to heartsickness.

Excavating burial caves in the south-central Andean province of Andahuaylas in Peru, UC Santa Barbara bioarchaeologist Danielle Kurin and her research team unearthed the remains of 32 individuals that date back to the Late Intermediate Period (ca. AD 1000-1250). Among them, 45 separate trepanation procedures were in evidence. Kurin’s findings appear in the current issue of the American Journal of Physical Anthropology.

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Surgeons have been saw crazy for a long time.