A 31,000-year-old leg amputation in Borneo may be world's oldest surgery
The remarkable Stone Age operation was made on a child who survived and years later grew into adulthood.
Tibi Puiu by Tibi Puiu September 8, 2022
Inside a massive cave in Borneo, called Liang Tebo, archaeologists have discovered a striking 31,000-year-old burial of a young adult with a missing lower left leg. What was particularly perplexing was that the limb wasn’t chewed off by animals or severed by other humans during a conflict. Instead, it seems to be the mark of surgery – an intentional medical act, which in this case involves an amputation. And if that is the case, it could mean surgeries could be more than 25,000 years older than previously thought. Previously, archaeologists found figurative rock art at least 40,000 years old in the area.
“The proximity to this early art, and East Borneo’s strategic location on the eastern edges of Ice-Age Sunda (Eurasia), motivated us to search this important and understudied area of the tropics. The archaeological record we have discovered provides a compelling case that the society living here 31,000 years ago, regularly practiced figurative and complex art [and] had mastered the complexities of advanced medical practice, enabling a child to survive the surgical removal of their lower left leg, and live into adulthood as an amputee. There is little doubt that this thriving community cared for this valued individual, commemorating their life in what is now the oldest known human burial from South East Asia, placing vibrant red ochre pieces within their grave,” Tim Maloney, a research fellow at the Griffith University in Australia, told ZME Science.
Amputations: a hit or miss for most of medical history
Nowadays we take healthcare for granted, but it was less than a hundred years ago that people died by the millions from common infections that are now treated with antibiotics. A thousand years ago it was much worse, and more than ten thousand years ago it was worse still by another order of magnitude.
The journey that medicine took to arrive at where it is today was no straight path, involving many twists and turns. Sometimes, we took one step forward only to take two steps back (looking at you, organized religion). At first, people organized in hunter-gatherer groups learned through experimentation and cultural transmission which plants and foods were good to eat and which weren’t. For thousands of years, people used an array of plants and herbs prepared in various ways to treat wounds, infections, and all sorts of ailments through a painstaking process of trial and error.
More:
https://www.zmescience.com/science/news-science/a-31000-year-old-leg-amputation-in-borneo-is-worlds-oldest-surgery-we-know/