CAUSATION AND METHODS OF SKULL TREPANATION IN THE PAST FROM THE POINT OF VIEW OF THE LATEST FINDINGS FROM THE CZECH TERRITORY

Intentionally opened skulls are considered one of the most fascinating paleopathological findings. A summary of trepanned skulls found on the Czech territory (2002) includes 51 items. Since then the anthropological analysis of skeletal remains from both the earlier excavation and new archaeological sites has brought new data. This paper presents a diverse group of eight trepanned skulls. One skull dates from the La Tène period; another six from the Early Middle Ages or Middle Ages, while the date of the last one is unknown. Four of the trepanations can be considered as posttraumatic treatment, the other skulls show no pathological changes that could be the reason for such an operation. The scraping method prevails; two operations were performed by cutting, one by drilling with the use of a trepan. Only one operation was unfinished. Both operations performed by cutting were unhealed – in one case the opening touches the imprint of the middle meningeal artery on the inner side of the skull, which is usually considered a fatal complication.