Amputation Was Successful 7000 Years Ago, in Seine Et Marne
by With the help of a flint tool, an elderly man was amputated left arm, by sawing of the humerus. He did very well out, and survived long enough for the operation. This story happened, there are nearly 7000 years on the current site of Buthiers-Boulancourt, Seine-et-Marne, excavated by Inrap.
Archaeologists who have been able to reconstruct precisely just published their discovery in the journal Antiquity. It is the oldest known successful amputation on French territory, the other two are known iIn the Early Neolithic of Western Europe: Sondershausen in eastern Germany and Vedrovice, Moravia (Czech Republic).
On-site Buthiers Boulancourt archaeologists (Cecile Buquet-Marcon, Philippe Charlier and Anaïck Samzun, authors of the article in Antiquity) found “seven houses Neolithic Danubian tradition deSite and pit, characteristic of the end of the culture “Blicquy-Villeneuve-Saint-Germain” dated 4900-4700 BC. Two small groups were also searched sepulchral. They contained two and three burials in pits individual characteristics, “says the press Inrap.
One of the characters was immediately intrigued by the team. Its graves, vast, indeed indicates that jouisssait a special status in the human group to which he belonged. Traces of ocher in his skull, a long and beautiful polished ax slate and a peak of flint lying on his arm, and the skeleton of a lamb or a kid on his feet. Little mundane objects, ax slate of 20 cm could come from the Ardennes, the peak of flint reached 30 cm, was carefully polished … and was rarely used (see picture below). In short, objects of prestige.
Shale and flint ax man suffering from osteoarthritis, had lost several teeth and was old enough. Above all, he had a disability, his left arm missing. Pursuing a very precise study of the humerus, with means and radiological microtomographic, archaeologists have reconstructed the bone in 3 D, the section shown by a cutting tool and revealed signs of bone healing after.
This review shows a clear description of the act, and by researchers, as virtually a medical release, “This can be reconstructed: the cut was made from the anterior to posterior and weight of the forearm, may have helped the surgeon, has caused the breakdown of the last millimeter of cortex, as can be seen by cutting a piece of wood. The arm was probably extended, for a maximum opening of the elbow. Bone healing reported patient survival. The absence of infection, evidence of good aseptic technique. “
The first European farmers were therefore capable of quite sophisticated surgical procedures. It is hoped that they also had few ways anesthetic …
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