http://www.bbc.com/earth/story/20160826-...ers-skulls
Why our ancestors drilled holes in each other's skulls
Thousands of years ago, people were performing a form of surgery called "trepanation" that involves boring holes through a person's skull. For a large part of human prehistory, people around the world practised trepanation: a crude surgical procedure that involves forming a hole in the skull of a living person by either drilling, cutting or scraping away layers of bone with a sharp implement.
To date, thousands of skulls bearing signs of trepanation have been unearthed at archaeological sites across the world.
This was mainly done as there were beliefs that this would help with mental illnesses as well as various other sickness. Considering the answer to curing most sickness qat the time was to use a good leech, this practise was not strange. Although this was an actual solution it was often misused, as unqualified people attempted use this to fix homosexuality, as well as to cure people with schizophrenia and mental instability.
Why our ancestors drilled holes in each other's skulls
Thousands of years ago, people were performing a form of surgery called "trepanation" that involves boring holes through a person's skull. For a large part of human prehistory, people around the world practised trepanation: a crude surgical procedure that involves forming a hole in the skull of a living person by either drilling, cutting or scraping away layers of bone with a sharp implement.
To date, thousands of skulls bearing signs of trepanation have been unearthed at archaeological sites across the world.
This was mainly done as there were beliefs that this would help with mental illnesses as well as various other sickness. Considering the answer to curing most sickness qat the time was to use a good leech, this practise was not strange. Although this was an actual solution it was often misused, as unqualified people attempted use this to fix homosexuality, as well as to cure people with schizophrenia and mental instability.