A former assistant professor and later tenured associate professor of bioarchaeology at the University of California, Santa Barbara, Danielle Kurin, PhD, has undertaken field investigations in the Andes in areas of pre-Columbian research such as natural disaster, health, and human migration. One subject in which Danielle Kurin has in-depth knowledge is trepanation, or the ancient practice of drilling holes in the skull and removing a cranial vault section.
The practice was introduced in the south-central Andean highlands from AD 200-600 and was used in treating conditions that ranged from brain trauma to psychosomatic illness. The practice ended with the arrival of the colonial Spanish in the early 1500s. The ubiquity of the practice is in evidence in burial cave excavations Dr. Kurin guided in the Peruvian province of Andahuaylas. Among the remains of 32 people dating back to AD 1000-1250 at one site, 45 distinct trepanation procedures were cataloged. As Dr. Kurin described it, archeological evidence reveals the use of a number of different trepanation techniques, including cutting, scraping, and hand drilling. With the procedure largely limited to male skulls, the aim was to go through the bone without touching the brain. In many cases there is evidence that the trepanation healed, through “finger-like projections of bone” that grew back over a period of years. Dr. Kurin noted that the experimentation with various surgical techniques reflected a backdrop of sudden social collapse of the Wari civilization around 1000 AD and subsequent attempts to safeguard people against disease and violence. She compares trepanation’s progress with research into new medical techniques that have accompanied later conflicts, such as the U.S. Civil War.
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AuthorDanielle Kurin - Award-Winning Educator and Researcher. Archives
June 2023
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