Buried in a shallow grave inside a remote Indonesian cave, archaeologists have found the bones of a young man they say could rewrite the history of medicine.
Using radiocarbon dating techniques, scientists estimate the body remained untouched for 31,000 years inside Liang Tebo Cave in Borneo’s eastern Kalimantan province, according to research published in the journal Nature on Wednesday.
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But the most striking aspect of the finding was that the young man was missing his lower left leg, with signs that it had been carefully amputated when the person was a preteen or teenager before his death from unknown causes between the ages of 19 and 21. , the researchers said.
The remarkably intact skeleton was found in 2020 by Australian and Indonesian archaeologists, who say the amputation reveals considerable surgical skill and is the oldest example in the archaeological record, shaking our understanding of the sophistication of Stone Age humans.
“It’s significant because it considerably detracts from our species’ knowledge of surgery and complex medicine,” Maxime Aubert, a professor at the Center for Social and Cultural Research at Griffith University in Queensland, said in an email.
“They needed to have a deep understanding of human anatomy, such as stopping blood flow, anesthesia and antisepsis. All of this has only become the norm very recently,” Aubert wrote.
Experts thought that humans lacked the experience to perform difficult procedures like amputation until the rise of agriculture and permanent settlement transformed human society over the last 10,000 years.
Prior to this discovery, the oldest known amputee was an elderly farmer whose left forearm had been removed just above the elbow 7,000 years ago in what is now France, the study noted.
It was only 100 years ago that surgical amputation became a Western medical norm. Before developments like antibiotics, the study found, most people would have died at the time of amputation.
“Blood loss, shock and subsequent infection were the main sources of fatal amputation until relatively recently in human history,” said Tim Maloney, a researcher at Griffith University and one of the study’s co-authors.
The individual had his left leg amputated as a child and survived for six to nine years after the surgery, according to the research.
There were no traces of infection in the bones, and new bone growth formed over the amputated area – something that takes considerable time. Also, while the rest of the skeleton was the size of an adult, the amputated bones stopped growing and maintained their childhood size.
The surgeon or surgeons who performed the operation 31,000 years ago, likely with knives and scalpels made of stone, must have detailed knowledge of the anatomy and muscular and vascular systems to expose and negotiate the veins, vessels and nerves and prevent fatal blood loss. and infection, the study said.
After the amputation, intensive nursing and care would have been vital, and the wound would have had to be cleaned and disinfected regularly.
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