Man had HOLE drilled in his head 3,500 years ago, bones show

Though brain surgery is often thought of as a modern procedure, a new discovery suggests a gruesome, primitive form was performed in Israel 3,500 years ago.

Scientists excavating a Bronze Age tomb in Israel have discovered the remains of two high-status brothers who lived around 1500 B.C. and were seriously ill with an infectious disease, likely leprosy.

Investigators say the couple were likely elite members of society and possibly even royals.

One of the brothers opted to have an operation called trephination, in which a piece of bone is drilled and removed from the skull.

It is thought that this brother died hours or even minutes after the operation, although other ancient operations of this type were successful.

The analysis of the remains was led by Rachel Kalisher of Brown University, Rhode Island and published today in the journal PLOS One.

“We have evidence that trephination has been this universal, widespread form of surgery for thousands of years,” said Kalisher, a bioarchaeologist at Brown University.

“But we don’t see it very often in the Near East – there are only about a dozen examples of trephination in this entire region.

“My hope is that adding more examples to the scientific record will deepen our understanding of our field of medical care and cultural dynamics in ancient cities in this area.”

The two skeletons were buried in a tomb under an elite residence at Israel’s Tel Megiddo archaeological site.

The tomb dates back to the Late Bronze Age (around 1550-1450 BC) and DNA testing suggests that those buried were brothers.

The brothers were buried with finely painted Cypriot pottery, “other fine wares and precious materials,” and even the remains of sheep and goats—evocative of high society.

Both were found to have evidence of persistent iron-deficiency anemia in childhood that likely stunted growth.

They had extensive lesions on the bones, signs of chronic and debilitating diseases such as tuberculosis or leprosy – possibly one of the oldest examples of leprosy in the world.

Because they were brothers, the men may have had a shared susceptibility to the condition, according to the researchers.

“The shared epigenetic landscape may have predisposed them to similar types of disorders and diseases,” the experts say in their paper.

But there were some distinguishing features between the two sets of remains that reveal more about their story.

Individual A was between 21 and 46 years old when he died, while Individual B died in his late teens or early twenties.

Individual A has a square hole at the top of the head – evidence of trepanning – measuring 32mm by 31mm at its widest point.

It was formed by a series of intersecting notches at each corner, probably with an instrument having “a sharp bevelled edge, leaving clean margins.”

Trephination was used to treat a variety of medical conditions by relieving the buildup of pressure in the skull, but the lack of bone healing suggests the man died during or shortly after surgery — within days, hours, or maybe even minutes.

Researchers “can’t be certain” whether he died from the procedure or from the disease, but it was certainly performed while he was alive.

“We know there was no cure from the trephination,” Kalisher told MailOnline.

“But we’re not sure if the trephination was the cause or if the individual was dying anyway and the trephination just wasn’t helping.”

This treatment, while grim, would probably have been inaccessible to most Megiddo residents, again reflecting the brothers’ privileged status in life.

Individual A died after Individual B, who first died at a younger age, decomposed and was then reburied when his brother died.

The advanced state of the couple’s lesions indicates that, despite the severity of the condition, they survived many years longer than they would have if they had not enjoyed the luxuries of wealth and status.

Archaeologists know that people have been practicing cranial trephination for thousands of years, and doctors today perform a similar procedure called a craniotomy to relieve pressure in the brain.

There is evidence that ancient civilizations around the world, from South America to Africa and beyond, performed the operation.

The oldest skulls with evidence of trepanation date from around 6000 BC and were found in North Africa and Europe, but this case represents the earliest example of trepanation found in the Ancient Near East.

“Among the many findings of the study, we would like to highlight the special type of cranial trephination, the earliest of its kind in the region,” the authors say in their paper.

“This unusual procedure was performed on an elite individual with both developmental abnormalities and an infectious disease, leading us to suggest that this surgery may have been an intervention for deteriorating health.”