The Orthopaedic Museum in Oklahoma recently said that the museum holds the skull of a 2,000-year-old Peruvian samurai whose skull was injured in battle and where a metal plate was implanted to repair the fracture. The museum says this is the world's earliest skull surgery.
The Orthopedic Museum of Oklahoma and its exhibits of skulls implanted with metal plates.
Museum experts reportedly said the skull was originally preserved in the museum's private collection, however due to news reports about the skull's discovery, public interest in the artifact grew, and it was officially exhibited in 2020.
The region where the skull was found in Peru has long been known to surgeons for inventing a series of complex procedures to treat skull fractures. Due to the use of projectiles such as slingshots in combat, this damage was common at the time.
Metal plates are implanted in the wounded area of the skull to repair the fracture.
Experts say the skull in the museum's collection belongs to a samurai who was wounded in battle, but skull surgery saved his life, proving that the ancients were indeed capable of performing advanced surgery.
Surgeons of that period scraped a hole in the skull of a living person without using modern anesthesia or sterile techniques and implanted it with a metal plate. Traditionally, silver and gold have been used for this type of surgery.
John Villano, a physical anthropologist at Tulane University, told National Geographic in 2016 that it was known early on that it was a life-saving treatment.
The skulls of the Peruvian warriors were also apparently stretched.
Equally interesting is the fact that the skull in the museum's collection is an example of elongating the skull. It is an ancient form of body modification in which tribal members deliberately tied the skulls of young children with cloth and even tied the head between two pieces of wood for a long time to deform it.
There are many reasons for elongating the skull, from being a way of symbolizing oneself as a social elite to being a form of defense.
Archaeological excavations have found that Peruvian women with elongated skulls are less likely to suffer serious head injuries than women who do not have elongated skulls.
In a 2018 study published in Contemporary Anthropology, the practice of elongating skulls was found in different cultures from the Maya to the Huns and was found to be a status symbol of privilege and prestige among groups around the world.
Text/Nandu reporter Chen Lin