EARLY SURGERY

Otago Daily Times, Issue 22985, 14 September 1936, Page 10

EARLY SURGERY

GREAT SKILL REVEALED That surgeons who practised in Judea in the eighth century B.C. were fully conversant with the science of trepanning a skull is revealed by Dr C. B. Mortlock through exclusive data sent him by Mr J. L. Starkey, head of the Wellcome Archaeological Research Expedition, now in its fourth year of excavation at Tell Duweir, Palestine. Dr Mortlock, who is canon of Chichester, writes as follows in the London Daily Telegraph:— “A large deposit of human remains was found in a disused tomb contemporary with the earlier destruction of the city (Lachish). It is suggested that these 2000 bodies were the result of salvaging the burned city after the destruction by Sennacherib in 701 B.C. About 700 skulls were in sufficiently good condition for preservation, and are now in London awaiting study. TWO EXAMPLES OF TREPANNING “Besides many interesting pathological specimens and two skulls which were intentionally distorted, there are two examples of trepanning. “These are the earliest examples of this type of trepanning. All specimens found before have shown that the operation was made by circular scraping, but the two Lachish skulls conform to a technique which was previously only known among the Incas of America. In one skull the surgeon has started the operation on the left parietal and then performed on the opposite side. “Experts believe that in the case of Inca skulls the patient never recovered from the operation, but there is evidence that the Lachish patients survived. Anthropologists will now have the chance to study a large group of contemporary skulls from the same site, which will result in valuable deductions as to the inhabitant of Judea during the Jewish monarchy. SHOPS WITH GOODS UNCOVERED “ The excavations show that at the last period of occupation there was a public square within the gates, and a group of shops with their stores of goods has been uncovered. All the contents were in position when the roofs fell in from the burning of the city They were found buried under the ashes. “The largest shop was that ol a weaver Set in the floor was a large limestone dyeing vat; a row of loom weights marked the position of the looms, and a fragment of wooden beam actually remained of the burned loom From the same shop came a clay seal impression from a papyrus document bearing the impress of a seal 1 For Hilkiah the son of Maas.’ - “Close by were tne premises ot a corn chandler, and many jars bearing the royal stamp of Hebron were stacked in a wine and oil store “The XVHI-XIX dynasty temple, which produced the Duweir Ewer from the later levels, has proved equally interesting in the earlier period. A fine group oi pottery, including a flat platter, about 35 dipperflasks and a painted vase imported from the Greek mainland in the fifteenth century B.C. was found close to the early altar. “ This continuity of the history of the building is also confirmed by the development of the temple plan, which shows a continuous relatmnship in the three buildings covering a period from 1480 to 1260 B.C.