Stone Age People Practiced Surgical Amputation as Revealed by Ancient Burial Discovered by Scientists

Fossils reveal stone age people practiced surgical amputation, as evidenced in an ancient burial. This was unexpected for Neolithic people 31,000 years ago, raising the question of what else they knew.

Evidence of Ancient Surgical Amputation Found

Ancient human remains are subjected to environmental factors where they are deposited and are found incomplete, reported Science Alert.

However, the discovery of a human skeleton lacking its lower left leg in Indonesian Borneo has thrilled scientists, who argue the discovery is the oldest indication of surgical removal ever found.

A team of Indonesian and Australian researchers led by Griffith University archaeologist Tim Maloney discovered the skeleton inside a limestone cave in a remote region of East Kalimantan, Indonesian Borneo, in 2020, noted The Conversation.

Upon closer inspection, they found that the young person had their left foot expertly removed, most likely when they were children, at least 31,000 years ago.

The individual was buried with their amputated leg outstretched and burial markers on top of the grave after it healed sufficiently for them to live for another six to nine years.

According to Melandri Vlok, a bioarcheologist at the University of Sydney, they discovered a specimen that had survived amputation and lived on rocky terrain-possibly with the help of others.

A 7,000-year-old skeleton of an older man from France with his left forearm severed just above his forearm was the oldest proof of Stone Age limb amputation, citing Nature.

Even though it was executed crudely by stone age people compared to modern standards, the feat of surgical amputation is still impressive at the time of the ancient burial.

The lack of medical knowledge and numerous attempts to save people when their operating skills were still rudimentary were notable even as medicine advanced over the past century.

Complex Surgeries in the Past Baffles Experts

Maloney and colleagues acknowledge that their discovery calls into question the widely held belief among archaeologists that hunting and gathering societies, both ancient and modern, were incapable of performing more complex surgeries.

Their report stated that practitioners were not expected to understand human anatomy thoroughly.

A shift from foraging to farming in the last 10,000 years gave rise to a wave of health problems that compelled accumulative breakthroughs in medical knowledge.

It was initially believed that new treatments happened simultaneously with or after the introduction of agriculture. In the past, surgical amputations of fingers were believed to be reserved for rituals and ceremonies or as a form of retaliation.

Archaeologist Maxime Aubert of Griffith University noted that evidence from the Bornean skeleton demonstrates that early humans were capable of cutting off limbs before farming or permanent homesteads were established.

It is difficult to date human remains, but it can be done by measuring radioactivity from tooth enamel and comparing it with silt where fossils have been found. Because there were no skeletal signs of infection where the leg bone was split clean across, scientists deduce that the surgical removal likely occurred when the individual was a child.

Crushing fractures are generally caused by blunt force trauma. However, this may be a one-of-a-kind, unusual occurrence.

While there is at least one way that prehistoric people in these Asian rainforest regions might have treated infections due to Indigenous peoples' vast knowledge of plant-based remedies based on the study.

If stone age people do surgical amputation based on the discovery of an ancient burial, more surprises will unravel.