Archaeologists uncover evidence of early brain surgery on 9th-century man

Archaeologists have unearthed evidence of what may be the world’s first surgery: a Viking-age human skull with a portion removed.

The remains, belonging to a man between 17 and 24 years old, feature an oval hole roughly 3 centimeters in diameter. Experts believe the man lived during the ninth century, according to reporting by SWNS.

The man likely underwent trepanation, an ancient surgical procedure where a hole is bored into a living person’s skull to treat conditions like migraines or seizures. 

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University of Cambridge students discovered the remains last year during a training dig at the Wandlebury Iron Age hill fort.

The discovery is notable not just for the surgery, but for the man’s physical stature. Standing 6 feet, 5 inches tall, he towered over the average male of the era, who typically stood 5 feet, 6 inches, per SWNS.

“The individual may have had a tumor that affected their pituitary gland and caused an excess of growth hormones,” said Dr. Trish Biers, curator of the Duckworth Laboratory at the University of Cambridge, in the report.

“We can see this in the unique characteristics in the long shafts of their limb bones and elsewhere on the skeleton.”

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Biers noted that such a condition would have increased intracranial pressure and caused severe headaches. The trepanation was likely an attempt to alleviate that pain, a goal that is “not uncommon with head trauma today.”

A puzzling burial site

The burial site itself presented a grim mystery. The mass grave contained a mix of complete and dismembered bodies, including a cluster of skulls and what researchers described as a “stack of legs.”

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Four complete skeletons were unearthed, some in positions suggesting that they had been tied up. 

Most appeared to be young men thrown into the pit without care, leading archaeologists to suspect that the site marks the aftermath of a skirmish, battle or mass execution.

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“Those buried could have been recipients of corporal punishment, and that may be connected to Wandlebury as a sacred or well-known meeting place,” Oscar Aldred of the Cambridge Archaeological Unit told SWNS.

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“It may be that some of the disarticulated body parts had previously been displayed as trophies and were then gathered up and interred with the executed or otherwise slaughtered individuals.”