Skull reveals clues to Bronze Age surgical technique

THE skull of a Bronze Age man who is believed to have survived one of Britain’s oldest forms of surgery was being displayed yesterday.

Hi-tech carbon tests on the top half of an adult skull recovered from the River Thames at Chelsea in October show it dates back to 1750BC, English Heritage said.

It has a 45 mm by 30 mm hole in the top made by a gruesome procedure known as trepanation, where a portion of the bone was removed from a living and most likely conscious patient.

Bone regrowth around the hole shows he survived the drastic treatment long before effective antiseptics or anaesthetics became available, historians said.

Dr Simon Mays, English Heritage's expert on human skeletal remains, and Jane Sidell, English Heritage's adviser in archaeological science, were due to discuss the discovery at the organisation's central London headquarters.

Trepanning was sometimes used to alleviate cranial fractures, although historians say this is not what happened to this patient.

More likely is that the procedure could have been used to try to cure headaches and migraines by relieving pressure in the head.

It was also thought carving a hole in the head would release evil spirits causing epilepsy or mental illness.

How the skull came to rest at the bottom of the Thames remains a mystery although historians suggest it may have been placed at a spiritual burial site.

"Trepanning is probably the oldest form of surgery we know," said Dr Mays.

"The trepanning on this skull would have been carried out with a scraping tool, probably a flint, using great care to avoid piercing the brain.

"There is no evidence of any post-operative infection, which would have been the main cause of death in these operations, and the trepanation probably did not cause this patient any lasting problems.

"The skull shows that there were people in Britain at the time with significant anatomical and surgical skills, ones not bettered in Europe until Classical Greek and Roman times more than a thousand years later."

About 40 trepanned skulls, dating from the Neolithic to post-medieval times, have been recovered from across Britain. This is the first dated one to come from London.

The surgery appears to have become a speciality in Britain and to have recorded a "remarkable level of survival", according to English Heritage.

This is because the scraping technique, rather than less controllable methods such as sawing, gouging or drilling, was more common in Britain than abroad.

The skull was discovered by Fiona Haughey of the Institute of Archaeology. Hundreds of skulls dating from prehistoric times, many of men aged between 25 and 35 without any accompanying skeletons, have been recovered from the Thames.

Several weapons, such as swords, shields, rapiers, daggers and spearheads, which were probably symbols of wealth and power, have also been recovered from the river.