Although scientists are still unsure how the brain works, one thing's for sure: since the cromagnon days of man, mentally ill people have benefited from a good trepanation. For some reason, a crude ...

In the 1860s, a U.S. newspaper editor, author, and amateur archaeologist named E.G. Squier traveled to Cuzco, Peru. He visited the home of a wealthy woman who collected antiquities to view an ancient ...

Cranial surgery is tricky business, even under 21st-century conditions (think aseptic environment, specialized surgical instruments and copious amounts of pain medication both during and afterward).

Even with a highly skilled neurosurgeon, the most effective anesthesia, and all the other advances of modern medicine, most of us would cringe at the thought of undergoing cranial surgery today. After ...

Scientists analyzed the skull of a medieval woman who once lived in central Italy and found evidence that she experienced at least two brain surgeries consistent with the practice of trepanation, ...

Archaeologists in Poland have discovered a rare iron tool that the Celts used to perform cranial surgery 2,300 years ago. The hand-held artifact was found at Łysa Góra, a Celtic site in the Mazovia ...

Surgical interventions that require drilling a hole in the skull are now known as “trepanation.” People may have begun using this process earlier than the 19th century when modern neurosurgery began.

Add Yahoo as a preferred source to see more of our stories on Google. Archaeologists discovered a 2,300-year-old trepanation tool—used to remove a section of bone from the skull—at an ancient commune ...

If you’re going to get a hole drilled into your skull, you don’t want to use just any tool. (Though most of us would avoid the skull-drilling in the first place.) One researcher used four different ...

Trepanation is a procedure which was done throughout human history. It involves removing a section of the skull and was often done on animals and humans. The first recorded proof of this was done on a ...