Skeleton reveals oldest surgical amputation in hunter-gatherer societies

T.His amputation, his skeleton indicates, occurred when the individual was probably 12. The lower part of his left leg was missing. And somehow this individual survived the surgical procedure – an amazing feat considering it happened about 31,000 years ago.

A skeleton found in a cave on the island of Borneo in what is now Indonesia appears to be the earliest known evidence of surgical amputation – 24,000 years earlier than a French farmer whose left arm was amputated. Estimated 7,000 years ago.

The newly identified amputation occurred when the individual was a child who lived in a hunter-gatherer society, a team of archaeologists from Indonesia and Australia. reported Wednesday in the journal NatureThe child, whose sex the researchers did not specify, lived an additional six to nine years and eventually died at age 19 or 20, according to skeletal analysis.

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This procedure took place so long ago that low sea levels connected this part of Indonesia to mainland Southeast Asia.

“This is a very strong case of this. [surgeon] Tim Maloney of Griffiths, Australia, said, “The community has developed a high degree of medical understanding that can successfully amputate a child’s left lower limb and not only survive the surgery, but also survive very well into adulthood in this setting.” I was able to live a prosperous life,” said the university, the lead author of the paper.

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Amputation requires technical skill, anatomical knowledge, and fighting the elements. Surgeons need to prevent infection. Navigate nerves, muscles and blood vessels. Sedate the patient and control pain (ideally). and cut the bone. According to Maloney, people who survived amputation only recently became the norm, thanks to advances in antiseptics that began in the late 19th century.

The 7,000-year-old amputation in France is consistent with the view that people began to develop more innovative medical practices as they transitioned from foraging to agricultural societies.

New research challenges that perception. Analysis of the Bornean bones led researchers to rule out causes such as traumatic accidents and animal attacks, concluding that it was an “intentional surgical amputation.” The bones also showed signs of healing and no signs of persistent infection. The fact that this person lived for several years indicates that infection was not a major problem. Additionally, successful procedures indicate that prehistoric surgeons or surgeons knew how to stop blood loss.

Such surgery also raises the possibility that society knew how to use plant species for sedation, pain, and infection control. suggesting that it helped them survive in mountainous areas.

Charlotte Roberts, a bioarchaeologist at the University of Durham, said in an editorial published in Nature Wednesday, “It is amazing that this child survived the surgery and is estimated to have lived for many years afterward.” .

The authors of the study cautioned that they do not know how widespread this surgical technique and knowledge was at the time, or whether other successful amputations were similarly performed.

The skeleton was found in a limestone cave called Liang Tebo, home to the oldest known rock art. When archaeologists were excavating a burial ground there, they came across a skeleton with a severed tibia and fibula and missing the lower part of the left leg.

Benjamin Miller is an orthopedic surgeon at the University of Iowa, an amputee, and was not involved in the new research. Reading the paper, he marveled at details such as how surgeons of the time managed blood loss and infection.

He also pointed out another mystery. Even today, “having something like a sharp steel instrument that’s a little dull doesn’t work,” he says Miller. “I just don’t understand how they cut bones.”

Maloney said he had several theories as to what kind of scalpel might have been used. , added, “Clinically speaking, neither is an ideal blade for surgical precision.” According to Maloney, the most likely answer was the edge of the stone.

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