First evidence of brain surgery in Bronze Age Harappa

We report here the first unequivocal case of ancient brain surgical practice, known as trepanation, observed similar to 4300 years ago in a Bronze Age Harappan skull. A decade ago, a Neolithic skull from Burzahom super(1-3)in the Kashmir Valley was reported with multiple trepanations as the first case from the Indian subcontinent. The trepanation, also called trephination or trephining, had been the oldest craniotomic surgical procedure practised by mankind since the Stone Age by way of drilling or cutting through the skull vault of a living or recently deceased person. It was first noticed in Peru super(4,5) and later in Europe as well super(6,7) around 5000 years ago, and thought to have spread to Asia similar to 4000 BP in the Bronze Age Jericho of Palestine super(8,9). Most scholars super(7) noticed striking similarities in trepanation techniques across the continents, and therefore consider it as an important evidence for prehistoric movements of people and for transfer of surgical skills from one society to another.