According to a new study, the 31,000-year-old skeleton of a young adult unearthed in an Indonesian cave missing its left foot and part of its left leg is the earliest known evidence of an amputation.
According to scientists, the amputation was performed when the individual was a child, and the “patient” lived for years as an amputee. According to a study published Wednesday in the journal Nature, the archaic surgery may indicate that humans made medical advancements much earlier than previously believed.
Tim Maloney, an archaeologist from Griffith University in Australia and the study’s principal researcher, discovered the grave while excavating a cave in Borneo’s rainforest, a place famed for having some of the earliest rock art in the world.
On March 2, 2020, Dr. Tim Maloney and Andika Priyatno will be working in a cave in East Kalimantan, Borneo, Indonesia. The remains, which have been dated to 31,000 years ago, represent the earliest known evidence of amputation. According to a study published in the magazine Nature on September 7, 2022, the prehistoric surgery could indicate that humans were making medical advancements considerably earlier than previously believed. Tim Maloney/Griffith University via the Associated Press
Although much of the bones was intact, the left foot and lower left leg were missing, he explained. After inspecting the remains, the experts determined that the foot bones were not accidentally lost or stolen from the burial; rather, they were deliberately removed.
Maloney stated that the remaining leg bone displayed a clean, slanted incision that had completely healed. There were no evidence of infection, which would have been expected if the child’s limb had been severed by a crocodile. In addition, there was no indication of a crushing fracture, which would have been expected if the limb had been severed in an accident.
The individual appears to have survived a further six to nine years after losing the leg, finally dying of unidentified causes as a young adult, according to the researchers.
Photographed at Griffith University in Brisbane, Australia, on September 1, 2022, is the 31,000-year-old skeleton unearthed in a cave in East Kalimantan, Borneo, Indonesia. Tim Maloney/Griffith University via the Associated Press
The scientists concluded that this demonstrates that prehistoric foragers had sufficient medical knowledge to execute the procedure without suffering fatal blood loss or infection. Researchers do not know what type of tool was used to amputate the limb or how infection was prevented; nevertheless, they think that a sharp stone tool may have been used to make the incision and note that some of the region’s abundant plant life has medicinal capabilities. Additionally, the community would have had to care for the child for years, as surviving the tough environment as an amputee would have been difficult.
Maloney stated during a press event that this early surgery “rewrites the history of human medical knowledge and advancements.”
Prior to this discovery, the earliest case of amputation was a French farmer who had a portion of his forearm amputated 7,000 years ago. According to the authors of the study, scientists had believed that modern medical procedures emerged roughly 10,000 years ago, when humans established agricultural societies.
Alecia Schrenk, an anthropologist at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, who was not involved in the study, said that this study adds to the mounting evidence that humans began caring for each other’s health far earlier in their history.
Schrenk stated in an email, “For a very long time, it was believed that healthcare was a very recent development.” This article’s research indicates that prehistoric peoples were not left to fend for themselves.
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