What is trepanning / trephining? Trepanning is a technique of drilling a hole through the skull. Trepanning was used as a way to cure head aches. This was because people believed that if you had a headache you would have a spirit stuck inside you and believed that if you put a hole through the skull you would be releasing the spirit. The symptoms before trepanation would be things like a headache, hallucinations, visions or hearing voices in their head. These symptoms made people believe that person with the illness had an evil spirit inside them so they would drill a hole in the person’s skull to “free” the spirit. Even though people thought that this was a solution to their problems, some people continued having health problems such as an infection, poor wound healing, pain and sometimes the loss of their brains functioning after this excruciating procedure called trepanning.
Another type of archaeological evidence is bones. A lot of bones and cave paintings are found in caves and in mountains. One of these pieces of evidence the three brothers cave in France. The cave painting of the three brothers’ cave shows a man wearing the antlers of a stag, dancing. It also shows a doctor wearing a monstrous deer mask over his face. Cave paintings and symbolic artefacts found by archaeologists suggest the earliest humans believed in spirits and supernatural forces. Animals, the stars, the land in which they lived and dead ancestors all inhabited a spirit world that was connected to their everyday life. Special individuals, like Shamen, were thought to be able to contact the spirit world and seek their guidance when they entered mysterious trances. These men and women would call upon the spirits to bring good hunting or heal the sick and were possibly the first doctors.
Spirit healers would perform ceremonies and cast spells to treat the sick. We also believe that they dispensed the first medicines. Drinking the blood of a wild animal killed in the hunt would give hunters special powers or eating special plants known only to the shaman could treat sickness. It is possible that these treatments would sometimes have a beneficial effect and it is thought that drugs like digitalis and morphine were first discovered in this way.
The lifestyles of certain groups of people such as the aborigines and African tribes show us about prevention of illnesses and diseases. This is because aborigines and African
Tribes moved around a lot: this left their waste behind them which prevents things like diseases and certain illnesses spreading around through the people of the tribes. Furthermore, fewer people lived on one land together so their was less contact with diseases. In addition, they ate a healthy diet such as meats, plants, plant roots and berries. Another thing that prevented disease in African tribes and aborigines was the fact that they did a lot of exercise as they moved around a lot.
The aborigines believed there were good spirits and bad spirits. Most of the time the good spirits looked after the tribe because of the activities such as dancing and the chanting of the medicine man. The spirit man stated that he got his power from the spirit world, a world only he could understand. Through dancing, chanting and picture making he got in touch with the spirits and receives help to heal the sick. The medicine man was as respected the chief of the tribe. He was a mixture of a priest, a doctor and an artist.
The medicine man never actually had the skills of a modern doctor, but was always accepted as a healer. If he ever failed one of his treatments it was never his fault. It was always the patients fault for upsetting the spirits, or sometimes, the spirits were too strong to be stopped. All this made good sense to the Aborigines, particularly when we remember the way they lived.
Archaeological evidence can tell us a lot about prehistoric medicine for example if a skeleton was found this would show us signs or markings of the different types of treatments they used before 10,000 BC such as trepanning. The evidence for trepanning would be a skull with a hole in it as shown in the picture above. Another form of archaeological evidence is cave paintings. An example of this was found in the three brothers’ cave. Lifestyle evidence can also tell us a lot from the remains of the Aborigine Tribes and the African tribes. For example images of the medicine man treating his patients show us different types of cures done by the medicine man from the Aborigine and African tribes.
A comparison between archaeological evidence and lifestyle evidence is that aborigine and African tribes used magic to cure and archaeological evidence was more involved with superstition for example a spirit having entered your body if you had a headache.
In conclusion, prehistoric medicine was extremely basic the treatments that were used reflected their close relationship to nature and their superstition about spirits. Though prehistoric people had very little idea of how the body worked treatments included:
- Simple cures using medicinal herbs.
- Setting broken limbs.
- Blaming evil spirits for diseases.
- Employing “medicine men” whom they believed wielded power over spirits.
The main types of evidence can tell us that there wasn’t any professional treatment during the pre –historic times and that pre – historic medicine was no more than superstitions and herbal cures.
By Hatice Giritli
10 cu
