In 1914, a Swiss amateur archaeologist, Ernest Roulin, approached the Museum of Science and Art in Ireland with an incredibly rare discovery – two ancient amulets made from fragments of human cranium...
A detailed examination of the skull of a woman who lived in central Italy in the medieval settlement of Castel Trosino more than 1,300 years ago has revealed something both astonishing and...
A skull housed at the Museum of Osteology in Oklahoma is causing quite a stir. The ancient elongated skull, dating back 2,000 years, once belonged to a Peruvian warrior. After being injured during...
Trephination (known also as trepanning, trepanation, trephining, or making a burr hole), is a surgical procedure, which involves the drilling of a hole in the skull of a living person. Trephination...
Archaeologists in Russia have found the grave of a warrior who did not die directly of his battle wounds but as a result of a failed surgical procedure performed on his skull. Near him was found a...
Trepanation – the technique of removing bone from the skull by scraping, sawing, drilling or chiselling – has long fascinated those interested in the darker side of medical history. One stock tale is...
A remarkable discovery was made during excavations in a Neolithic settlement in Omdurman in Sudan – an ancient skeleton with signs of trepanation (drilling a hole in the skull), dating back around 7,...
The skull of a man who was beheaded in the 15 th century was at the center of a mystery until experts revealed the cranium was harvested to be used as medicine. Within the crypt of Italy’s Otranto...
Archaeologists have unearthed evidence of ancient surgery among the remains of people who lived in a settlement near Istanbul, Turkey, between the 11 th and 6 th centuries B.C. A skull, buried among...
