The 31,000-year-old skeleton (骨骼) of a young adult found in Indonesia reveals the oldest known evidence of an amputation (截肢), according to a new study.
"We were exploring a cave in Borneo, in a rainforest region, for some of the earliest rock art in the world, when we came across the burial site and the skeleton, which then excited our curiosity," said Tim Maloney, the study's lead researcher. Though much of the skeleton was complete, it missed its left foot and the lower part of its left leg, he explained. After examining the remains, the researchers concluded the foot bones weren't lost in the site or in an accident — they were carefully removed. The remaining leg bone showed a clean cut.
Researchers believed the find presents a remarkable deed. It's tricky and demanding to prevent infection in amputations, even to this day. Yet more than 30,000 years ago someone was able to handle it. Researchers didn't know what tool was used to cut the body parts, but they assumed a sharp stone tool may have made the cut. What seems certain is that the patient enjoyed great post-operative care for considerable time, for the person appeared to have lived for around six to nine more years after being disabled.
The operation's good end result is not pure chance. It implies that the person who performed the operation had some understanding of antimicrobial (抗菌的) medicine. In this respect, their lifestyle and forest environment might have proved to be advantages. "Given these people lived in an area with many medicinal plants, there is a strong case to guess that adapting to this environment may have boosted the development of advanced medical knowledge," Maloney said.
The surgery rewrites the history of human medical developments. Before this find, the earliest example of amputation had been in a French farmer from almost 7,000 years ago. Researchers had believed advanced medical practice developed around 10,000 years ago, as humans settled down into agricultural societies. But this study adds to evidence that humans started caring for each other's health long before that.
