Medieval surgery

Surgeons carried out complicated skull operations in medieval times, reveals archaeological finding.

The remains of a body found at an archaeological dig show in Yorkshire has revealed that surgeons were carrying out complicated skull operations in medieval times.

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The skull belonging to a 40-year-old peasant man, who lived between 960 and 1100AD, is the firmest evidence yet of cranial surgery, and shows that the man survived a fatal blow to his head because of proper surgery.

According to BBC, almost 700 skeletons were unearthed by English Heritage at a site near Malton, and scientists have been examining the remains from the now deserted village of Wharram Percy.

The skull in question, dating back to the 11th century, had been struck a near-fatal blow by a blunt weapon, causing a severe depressed fracture on the left side, and closer examination revealed that the victim had been given life-saving surgery called trepanning.

"This skull is the best evidence we have that such surgery to treat skull fractures was being performed in England at the time," the report quoted Dr Simon Mays, skeletal biologist at English Heritage's Centre for Archaeology, as saying.