Kellaway, Marissa

Mr. Wisner

World History

3rd Period M/W

October 7, 2016

Why Our Ancestors Drilled Holes in Each Others Skulls

http://www.bbc.com/earth/story/20160826-why-our-ancestors-drilled-holes-in-each-others-skulls

Key Vocabulary from the Article

o Trepanation: a surgical procedure that involves forming a hole in a living persons head by
either drilling, cutting or scraping away at the skull with a sharp intstrument.
o Implement- a tool, utensil, or other piece of equipment that serves a certain purpose.
o Ellipsoidal- a three-dimensional figure resembling a flattened sphere.
o Obelion- A point on the top and near the rear of the skull

Summary of the Event (at least 3 major points; each point will have its own paragraph)

Trepanation is a procedure where the a hole is drilled in a living persons skull with an
instrument. This procedure dates back to 7,000 years ago and was still happening in the early
1900s in isolated parts of Africa and Polynesia. While this procedure has clearly been
happening for a very long time, scientists are divided on the reason why it was performed. While
some believe it was for medical reasons, others believe it might have been used for rituals.
Some scientists believe that if trepanation was for medical use, it would be used to treat
pain, such as skull trauma or a neurological disease. This is because most trepanned skulls show
signs of cranial injuries or diseases, usually in the same area as the trepanatrion. The reason that
scientists cant be unified in their decision is because some brain conditions leave no impact on
the skull and there was not much evidence pointing towards rituals until 1997.
In 1997, Archeologists discovered the remains of 35 humans in the city of
Rostov-on-Don in the far south of Russia. The Archeologists knew that the skeletons dated to
between 5,000 and 3,000 BC, or the Copper Age because of the style of the burials. What was
unusual about the skeletons in the graves was that five of them had been trepanned in an area of
the skull known as the obelion. These skeletons, which belonged to two men, two women and a
teenage girl, all had a single hole that was a few centimeters wide carved in their skulls. Both the
location of the skeletons found and the location of the trepanation were very uncommon.
Trepanation performed on the obelion was rare to come across since blood is collected right
beneath it and it is very dangerous. The strangest discovery about these trepanations was that
they all seemed perfectly healthy and there was no reason for them to be trepanned. So why did
these people have to be involved in such a dangerous procedure?
Elena Betieva, an anthropologist studying the five skulls from Rostov-on-Don, in search
for the reason why they were trepanned in such a strange way, discovered that two more skulls
had been trepanned in the same fashion and location just 31 miles away from the other five
skulls. Then, ten years later in 2011, four more skulls with the same trepanation style were also
found, 310 miles south of Rostov-on-Don. Together, these 11 skulls are the only trepanned skulls
that dont have any signs of brain injury or disease.
There have been hundreds of trepanned skulls found in several different places of the
World. Most of them have evidence that leads anthropologists to believe they were trepanned for
medical reasons, yet the skulls found in southern Russia have no evidence of injury or disease
and were in such close proximity that it is hard to believe that they are not related. Many
anthropologists believe that these skulls in particular were trepanned for some kind of ritual, the
first solid proof leading towards ritualistic trepanation.

Opinion of the Event

I think it is very interesting to read how trepanation began and the purposes it served.
The fact that anthropologists are divided on the purpose of some trepenations, whether it be
medical or for ritual reasons, is intriguing since there is so much evidence pointing in both
directions. I think most trepenations were performed for medical reasons but I believe the 11 in
relation to the article were for a ritual, since they were so close together and the only
trepenations performed in that specific area of the skull.

Relation to a Historical Event

A historical event similar to this is how are ancestors drilled teeth. While trepanation and
teeth drilling are two different things, they both influenced medicine. Trepanation could be the
very beginning of brain surgery and teeth drilling has changed quite a bit since 10,000 years
ago. While trepanation almost always led to death and was abandoned for good in the 1920s,
teeth drilling is something that still happens everyday.
http://www.bbc.com/earth/story/20160229-how-our-ancestors-drilled-rotten-teeth

Relation to Cultural Interaction

 The theme of this event is belief systems and science. Trepanation has to do with
science because most of these procedure were performed to help people with diseases or
injuries. This event also has to do with belief systems because new evidence appeared not long
ago that trepanation may have been performed for rituals such as letting spirits leave the body.

Questions About the Event

-Why were the trepanations miles away but also in the same general area?
-Why was the age of the patients important to the ritual?
-Did the trepanations actually help with diseases or to relieve injuries?
-If some trepanations were performed for a ritual, did the patients volunteer or were they
chosen?