STONE AGE SKULL SURGERY — STEWART 



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amulets of bone, and still later by Manouvrier's (1895) recognition of 

 the nature of the "sincipital T" — a cross-shaped scarring of the skull 

 vault resulting from cauterization — to mention only landmarks in the 

 resulting extensive literature for Europe. Fortunately, it is no longer 

 necessary to go back to this literature for answers to many of the 

 questions that come to mind, because Piggott (1940) has summarized 

 and interpreted the record in an admirable fashion. He has also 

 listed most of the references for this area. 



Figure 1. — Squier's famous Cuzco skull, the first recognized case of prehistoric trephining. 



(Squier, 1877, p. 457.) 



In brief, some 370 examples of the practice have been reported from 

 the whole of prehistoric Europe, from Portugal in the southwest to 

 Sweden in the northeast, and from England in the northwest to Czecho- 

 slovakia in the southeast (fig. 2). In time they range from about 

 3000 to 200 B. C. Judging from the concentrations of specimens and 

 from archeological considerations, it would appear that a major surgi- 

 cal center developed in southern France about 1900-1500 B. C. and this 

 led — perhaps through a cult — to the formation in late Neolithic times 

 of a secondary center in the Paris area and also to much of the wide 

 distribution noted. Very likely the ancient custom can be connected 

 directly with the beginnings of modern European surgery. 



Pacific. — It is not clear just when knowledge of the practice of skull 

 surgery in the South Pacific reached the western world. In France 



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