Meet the world’s earliest known AMPUTEEN: 31,000 years ago, the boy in Borneo had his left foot surgically amputated – and he survived to tell the tale, skeletal analysis shows
- Researchers have found the 31,000-year-old remains of a Borneo youth
- They found evidence that her left foot had been surgically amputated
- They survived the operation and lived another six to nine years
- Until now, the earliest known surgical amputation was 7,000 years ago
While amputation can be considered a fairly modern procedure, a new study suggests humans have been performing such surgeries since the Stone Age.
Researchers from Griffith University have found the remains of a young individual in Borneo whose left foot was surgically amputated 31,000 years ago.
Amazingly, the researchers believe the person survived the surgery and lived another six to nine years, dying at the age of 19 or 20.
“This unexpectedly early evidence of successful limb amputation suggests that at least some modern groups of foraging humans in tropical Asia had developed sophisticated medical knowledge and skills long before the transition to Neolithic agriculture,” the researchers wrote in their study published in Nature.
Griffith University researchers have found the remains of a youth in Borneo whose left foot was surgically amputated 31,000 years ago (artist’s impression)
The researchers believe the remains belong to a young person who probably had the lower third of her lower leg surgically amputated as a child
An amputation is the surgical removal of a body part, such as an arm or leg.
The oldest known surgical amputation to date occurred around 7,000 years ago in a Neolithic farmer in France whose left forearm was surgically removed and then partially healed.
In Western societies, however, successful surgical amputation has only become a medical norm in the last 100 years, according to the researchers.
“Prior to modern clinical developments, including antibiotics, it was widely believed that most people undergoing amputation surgery would have died either from blood loss and shock at the time of amputation, or from subsequent infection — scenarios that lack skeletal markers for advanced healing leave behind.” They write.
The team discovered the skeletal remains in the Liang Tebo limestone cave in East Kalimantan.
They believe they belong to a young person who probably had the lower third of her lower leg surgically amputated as a child.
While the reason for the amputation remains unclear, the researchers say it’s unlikely it was the result of an animal attack or other accident, as they usually cause crush fractures.
The team discovered the skeletal remains in the Liang Tebo limestone cave in East Kalimantan
While the reason for the amputation remains unclear, the researchers say it’s unlikely it was the result of an animal attack or other accident, as they usually cause crush fractures
Regarding the person who performed the procedure, the researchers suggest that they must have “detailed knowledge of limb structure, muscles and blood vessels” to prevent fatal blood loss and infection.
This suggests that the amputation was probably not carried out as a punishment.
The team does not yet know whether this operation was a rare event or whether amputations were more common.
“The risk of death from trauma and disease has always been with us, and complex medical procedures such as limb amputation may well have been more common in our species’ pre-agricultural past than is currently commonly believed,” they said.
Overall, the results suggest that some early modern gathering groups in Asia developed advanced medical knowledge and skills in a late Pleistocene tropical rainforest environment.
‘Rapid wound infection rates in the tropics may have stimulated the development of novel drugs such as antiseptics that take advantage of the medicinal properties of Borneo’s rich plant diversity,’ the experts concluded.
WHAT DO WE KNOW ABOUT STONE AGE HISTORY?
The Stone Age is a period in human prehistory marked by the original development of stone tools, covering more than 95 percent of human technological prehistory.
It begins with the earliest known use of stone tools by hominins, ancient ancestors of man, during the Paleolithic period – beginning about 3.3 million years ago.
Around 400,000 to 200,000 years ago, the pace of innovation in stone technology began to accelerate slightly, a period known as the Mesolithic.
At the beginning of this period, hand axes were made with exquisite craftsmanship. This eventually gave way to smaller, more diverse toolkits, with a focus on flake tools rather than larger core tools.
The Stone Age is a period in human prehistory marked by the original development of stone tools, covering more than 95 percent of human technological prehistory. This image shows Neolithic jadeite axes from the Toulouse Museum
These toolkits were created at least 285,000 years ago in some parts of Africa and 250,000 to 200,000 years ago in Europe and parts of western Asia. These toolkits date back at least 50,000 to 28,000 years ago.
During the Early Stone Age, the pace of innovation and the level of craftsmanship increased.
Groups of Homo sapiens experimented with various raw materials, including bone, ivory and antler, and stone.
The period 50,000 to 39,000 years ago is also associated with the emergence of modern human behavior in Africa.
Different groups sought their own cultural identity and adopted their own methods of manufacture.
Later Stone Age peoples and their technologies spread out of Africa over the next several thousand years.
