One-legged Stone Age skeleton may show oldest amputation

[Still Waters]

The 31,000-year-old skeleton of a young adult found in a cave in Indonesia that is missing its left foot and part of its left leg reveal the oldest known evidence of an amputation, according to a new study.

Scientists say the amputation was performed when the person was a child — and that the “patient” went on to live for years as an amputee. 

Researchers were exploring a cave in Borneo, in a rainforest region known for having some of the earliest rock art in the world, when they came across the grave, said Tim Maloney, an archaeologist at Griffith University in Australia and the study’s lead researcher.

https://apnews.com/article/science-health-606cbfe3040b8fed2b9435fb1fbc2d29

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-62823559

The prehistoric surgery could show that humans were making medical advances much earlier than previously thought, according to the study published Wednesday in the journal Nature.

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-022-05160-8

[jethrofloyd]

46 minutes ago, Still Waters said:

The prehistoric surgery could show that humans were making medical advances much earlier than previously thought,

They also knew everything about use of the anesthesia.

[docyabut2]

Could it mean that  skeleton was born that way ?

 

[Timothy]

‘Mastered surgical procedures’?

Nope. Just one of the lucky ones to somehow survive.

[Eldorado]

I wonder if their family and friends called them 'Hoppy'.

[Herr Falukorv]

On 9/7/2022 at 9:26 PM, docyabut2 said:

Could it mean that  skeleton was born that way ?

 

no it could not

[moonman]

I highly doubt it was "surgical" - unless you call getting your leg chopped off by someone trying to kill you "surgical".

Some weird sacrificial limb thing or an attack I would guess.

Edited September 9, 2022 by moonman

[docyabut2]

The term is from Ancient Greek φώκη phōkē, "seal (animal)" + -o- interfix + μέλος melos, "limb" + English suffix -ia). Phocomelia is an extremely rare congenital disorder involving malformation of the limbs (dysmelia). Étienne Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire coined the term in 1836.^[1]

 from genetic inheritance.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phocomelia

Edited September 9, 2022 by docyabut2

[jmccr8]

We don’t know what the original injury was to start with , that said humans have been carving up meat for a long time even with bone tools so it is not surprising that someone took a chance on what they knew and it worked. Maybe when a child it was mauled or broken in a fall and had gang green set in. Humans observe things and learn from them and isolated incidents of constructive thinking in earlier archaic humans is worth study. We have no idea what humans in their time’s knew but there is sufficient evidence of archaic humans caring for others that are disabled 

[jethrofloyd]

Maybe a shark bit off his leg?

[Abramelin]

On 9/9/2022 at 4:36 PM, Herr Falukorv said:

no it could not

Why not?

[Tatetopa]

40 minutes ago, Abramelin said:

Why not?

I believe the article describes cut marks and several years worth of healing as a teen.  

[Abramelin]

28 minutes ago, Tatetopa said:

I believe the article describes cut marks and several years worth of healing as a teen.  

I understand the cut marks and the years of healing.

I also understand that the 'surgery' most probably wasn't a nice event.

So yes, it wasn't a birth defect.

But no doubt some people were born that way back then, like they still are.

[Tatetopa]

11 minutes ago, Abramelin said:

But no doubt some people were born that way back then, like they still are.

One would assume so. It would be rare good fortune indeed for us to find such a skeleton buried with some love or reverence.  It seems as likely to me that these early people did the same thing as our early Greek ancestors, expose infants that could not survive .  I don't mean to imply the Greeks were the only ones doing that, just an example. 

[Abramelin]

I'm glad to say those Greeks weren't MY ancestors.

[Tatetopa]

2 hours ago, Abramelin said:

I'm glad to say those Greeks weren't MY ancestors.

Who knows. Our ancestors were not writing anything down at that point.

[Tatetopa]

2 hours ago, Abramelin said:

I'm glad to say those Greeks weren't MY ancestors.

Speaking of Greeks, maybe Herodotus was right about those one-eyed one -legged humans hopping around in terra incognita.  (Opps, mixed metaphor, I don't know Greek for unknown lands.)