CAMBRIDGE, ENGLAND—Live Science reports that a woman’s skull unearthed at an early medieval Lombard cemetery in central Italy in the nineteenth century bears evidence of two possible trepanations. The first, a large cross-shaped incision, shows signs of healing and was probably performed up to three months before the woman died. In the second surgery, the bone of the woman’s forehead was scraped thin after the skin had been peeled back. Bioarchaeologist Ileana Micarelli of the University of Cambridge and the Sapienza University of Rome said the woman may have died during this second procedure, since the hole did not go all the way through the skull and there are no signs of healing on this wound. The rest of the woman’s remains are missing, she added, so the state of her health is unclear. Micarelli suggested, however, that the surgeries may have been attempts to treat a painful brain infection brought on by two large abscesses observed on the woman’s upper jaw. Read the original scholarly article about this research in International Journal of Osteoarchaeology. To read about the practice of trepanation in ancient Andes, go to "World Roundup: Peru."
