Paleoanthropology: 31,000 years ago the first surgical amputation?

A human skeleton found on the Indonesian island of Borneo dating back to at least 31,000 years old, from the time of a hunter-gatherer society, bears the world’s oldest evidence of surgical amputation on the left leg. The discovery calls into question the hitherto prevailing notion that such medical practices emerged much more recently, roughly paralleling the emergence of agriculture some 10,000 years ago.

The researchers from AustraliaIndonesia and South Africa, led by Tim Maloney of Australia’s Griffith University, who made the relevant publication in the scientific journal Nature, reported that the lower limb appears to have been deliberately amputated and the patient recovered. This indicates that sophisticated surgical procedures were taking place in tropical Asia thousands of years earlier than previously recorded.

Previously the earliest internationally known complex surgical procedure discovered involved a Neolithic farmer in France about 7,000 years ago, from which the left hand had been amputated.

Amputations require a comprehensive knowledge of human anatomy and surgical hygiene, as well as considerable technical skill. Before modern clinical advances such as antisepsis, most amputees eventually died of bleeding and septic shock or subsequent infection.

The researchers reported that in his case Borneo the surgical amputation of the lower leg probably took place when the young person was still a child. The young man survived the operation (which scientists consider surprising for such an early age), is estimated to have walked with the aid of a support, and lived on for another six to nine years, before finally dying and being buried at around age 20 years in the Liang Tembo limestone cave in the East Kalimantan region.

Scientists believe that whoever – or whoever – performed the amputation had a detailed knowledge of the leg’s structure, muscles and blood vessels, so that they were able to prevent fatal blood loss and infection. They consider it unlikely that the lower limb was severed by an animal attack or accident, as these usually cause crushing fractures. It also does not appear that the mutilation was done as punishment, as the young man received proper care after the operation and during his subsequent burial.

The conclusion therefore arises, according to Griffith, that some of our ancestors in the tropical rainforests of Asia had developed advanced medical knowledge and skills. The rapid deterioration of infections in such a hot and humid environment probably motivated the acquisition of useful knowledge such as antiseptics with the help of Borneo’s rich variety of herbs and other plants. Other important findings have been found on the same island in the recent past, such as unexpectedly old rock paintings, dating back to around 40,000 years ago.

RES-EMP

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