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3,000yo brain surgery patient likely treated with cannabis, magic mushroom 'painkillers' - study
A Russian researcher has published a new study on a 3,000-year-old medical procedure in which the patient was likely anaesthetized with natural hallucinogens and rhythmic music before the surgeon chiselled into their skull. The study of a Bronze Age man's skull has shed some light into how ancient people of the Krasnoyarsk region in northern Russia treated intracranial diseases.
Published in the International Journal of Osteoarchaeology, the study suggests that mind-bending natural stimulants such as magic mushrooms, cannabis and even the beat of a drum were used to dull the pain caused by primitive surgical instruments. Discovered at the Anzhevsky burial ground last year, the human skull is around 3,000 years old. It features a curious hole to the left parietal lobe, which scientists believe was the result of moderately successful ancient brain surgery, or trepanation.
Dr Sergey Slepchenko, of the Institute of Archaeology and Ethnography in Novosibirsk, told The Siberian Times the patient survived the initial procedure but likely died later from complications during the recovery period. "The surgeon probably stood face-to-face to the patient on the left side. Or the surgeon may have fixed the head with his left arm or between his knees [and] operated with his right hand," Slepchenko said.
[...] "One of the most dangerous complications of trepanation is bleeding which develops immediately after the skin incision," Dr Slepchenko said. "To minimize bleeding and reduce pain, the operation had to be carried out as fast possible by presumably highly-skilled surgeon. It is not clear how they stopped the bleeding."
I loved the title of the article. I didn't realize there were very many 3,000 year old patients, let alone candidates for brain surgery.
Ante Mortem Cranial Trepanation in the Late Bronze Age in Western Siberia (DOI: 10.1002/oa.2543)
(Score: 3, Insightful) by wonkey_monkey on Saturday August 20 2016, @11:57PM
moderately successful [...] likely died later from complications during the recovery period.
Cuh. That's Obamacare for you!
Anyway, the abstract of the paper says:
Although trepanation was the main cause for the development of the changes noted in the preceding texts, there are no reasons to believe that the subject died from complications arising from infection after trepanation. The patient survived and later died for reasons that may never be determined.
So where did the idea that he died from complications come from?
For that matter, where did the stuff about cannabis and anaesthetic bongos come from? There's nothing in the abstract. What actual evidence is presented for that "suggestion"?
systemd is Roko's Basilisk
(Score: 2) by RamiK on Sunday August 21 2016, @12:16AM
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/304070607_Antemortem_cranial_trepanation_in_the_Late_Bronze_Age_in_Western_Siberia_Cranial_trepanation_in_Western_Siberia [researchgate.net]
Read the full essay. PDF at the top right corner. Might need javascript.
compiling...
(Score: 2) by JNCF on Sunday August 21 2016, @12:21AM
So where did the idea that he died from complications come from?
For that matter, where did the stuff about cannabis and anaesthetic bongos come from?
From the abstract:
Although trepanation was the main cause for the development of the changes noted in the preceding texts, there are no reasons to believe that the subject died from complications arising from infection after trepanation. The patient survived and later died for reasons that may never be determined. Medical necessity was the most likely justification for trepanation. Immersion in altered states of consciousness may also have been a necessary part of the trepanation process as a mode of sedation, along with other shamanic practices, such as consumption of psychotropic substances or ecstatic dance.
I think the claims that he necessarily died from complications, and that psychoactive drugs were used during surgery, are just embelishments by the journalists. The abstract doesn't make these claims, but instead specifically states that they don't know how he died and that psychoactive drugs may have been used.
(Score: 2) by frojack on Sunday August 21 2016, @07:03AM
along with other shamanic practices
So the crazy guy gets his head drilled by a shaman with a sharp rock, and that somehow qualifies a surgery? Sounds like an overdose of delusional moral equivalence to me.
What led them to believe there was any anesthetic involved, real or imagined, with the possible exception of a bunch of bad beer?
Maybe he survived long enough to see some signs of healing around the drilled holes. It still doesn't actually mean much if this guy was a prisoner from another tribe.
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
(Score: 2) by JNCF on Sunday August 21 2016, @04:20PM
So the crazy guy gets his head drilled by a shaman with a sharp rock, and that somehow qualifies a surgery?
Two things:
1) While all we have left to examine is the skull, we might be looking at a hole which was used to access parts of the brain that the shaman removed. This is speculation, but a very real possibility. We could be looking at a primitive precursor to the prefrontal leucotomy. All it takes is one spear-induced mental disability before the whole tribe knows that removing head-meat affects your personality.
2) Some modern trepanation survivors report a different mental state afterwards, comparing it to constantly being somewhat high. Others do not, or they report the effect going away after a relatively short interval. I, unqaulified as I am to even speculate, suspect that this is a placebo and/or some temporary effect caused by brain swelling. Some proponents of trepanation (also unqualified to speculate) instead attribute it to increased levels of blood -- and therefore oxygen -- in the brain. If they are correct and I am wrong, trepanation is a surgery which has has permanent effects on cognition.
What led them to believe there was any anesthetic involved, real or imagined, with the possible exception of a bunch of bad beer?
I'm going to speculate that marijuana was probably discovered before alcohol. Alcohol requires fermentation, whereas marijuana requires fire. I agree that there is a high likelyhood of no anesthetic being used.
(Score: 2) by dry on Monday August 22 2016, @12:13AM
Why do you say that marijuana requires fire? You can eat the raw plant and get pretty high. Fermentation is a process that happens naturally as well, lots of true stories about various animals, ranging from birds to elephants getting drunk on naturally fermenting fruit.
They've both been used for all of history. Just heard someone talking about the evidence of cannabis use all over eastern Asia from about 5000 yrs ago and most all human cultures have had some form of alcohol.
(Score: 2) by JNCF on Tuesday August 23 2016, @09:02PM
Good points.
You can eat the raw plant and get pretty high.
I was unaware of this, but according to Mr. Google it seems to check out. It's still supposed to be way less effective than cooking, but that obviously doesn't matter for this conversation.
Fermentation is a process that happens naturally as well, lots of true stories about various animals, ranging from birds to elephants getting drunk on naturally fermenting fruit.
I was previously aware of this part, which makes my overlooking of it far more embarrassing than the last point; ignorance is more easily cured than stupidity.
They've both been used for all of history.
Just for clarity, I never questioned that fact.
(Score: 2) by frojack on Friday August 26 2016, @07:53AM
This is speculation, but a very real possibility. We could be looking at a primitive precursor to the prefrontal leucotomy.
One wonders. Who volunteers for that? Who would even thing of doing that to someone valued by the tribe?
To me it seems more likely someone took a spear in the head, and people were amazed he survived.
Or maybe it was torture inflicted on an enemy.
But in any case, who in the tribe gets to make that decision that Old Gronk needs a little ventilation?
"Letting out of demons" is as generous a description I can muster.
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
(Score: 2) by JNCF on Friday August 26 2016, @04:21PM
But in any case, who in the tribe gets to make that decision that Old Gronk needs a little ventilation?
The same could be asked about Young Rosemary; [wikipedia.org] in her case, the answer was her father. To me, it doesn't seem unreasonable that prehistoric brain scooping could have been used to pacify individuals who were acting out of line with societal norms -- whether that means being too violent, too sexual, too likely to have strange convulsions, or too whatever else. It may have been a last-ditch effort before execution.
"Letting out of demons" is as generous a description I can muster.
A description doesn't have to be generous to be plausible. But also, I think that might be the sort of terminology that an illiterate shaman would use to describe behavioral modification by means of misunderstood surgery.
(Score: 3, Informative) by JNCF on Sunday August 21 2016, @12:45AM
Here's the part of the article relevant to drug use:
Use of anaesthesia
Trepanation opening with evident signs of healing suggests successful early surgery in eastern Siberia during ancient times. However, considering the nature of trepanation, only a few studies have addressed the question of anaesthesia (Zäuner et al., 2011). No direct evidence suggests that drugs were used to minimize pain during operations performed in reliterate eras. However, many records and ethnographic materials collected worldwide show evidence of different methods of altering consciousness that may have been used as a proxy anaesthetic (Lindensmith, 2008; Guerra Doce, 2006; Koschel, 1996; Coles & Coles, 1989; Gizbert, 1961; Merlin, 1984; Anthony et al., 1991; Pashkevich, 1999; Rudenko, 1970; Herodotus, 2003; Krasheninnikov, 1949; Georgi, 1799). Such records and ethnographic materials cannot be inferred to draw direct parallels to actual practices but, instead, only serve as an example of changing attitudes and practices in the use of anaesthetics in ancient times.
Although plants serving this purpose are largely absent in Siberia, a few plants causing altered states of consciousness were applied in shamanic practices. For instance, the Nivkhi would burn wild rosemary (Ledum palustrel,Ledum hypoleucum) sticks and leaves for their rituals (Otaina, 1994). Shamans of the Udeghes, Ulchs, Nanai and Orochi threw Ledum leaves on a hot griddle during shamanistic rituals (Brehman & Sam, 1970; Podmaskin, 1978). Smoke from the burning leaves facilitated shamanic trance and caused mild hallucinatory effect. Some people of Siberia used juniper (Juniperus sibirica) and thyme (Thymus vulgaris) in shamanic practices for the same purpose (Otaina, 1994). Cannabis (Cannabis sativa) is another plant that may have been used to alter consciousness and/or as a therapeutic agent (Chang, 1968). It is well known that the Scythians consumed cannabis (Herodotus, 2003; Pashkevich, 1999). Strong evidence suggests the consumption of cannabis in the Pazyryk culture in south Siberia (Rudenko, 1970). Wild marijuana still grows in eastern Siberia, and we can only speculate that the population who left the Anzhevka I burial ground consumed cannabis to enter altered states of consciousness and/or minimize pain.
Because plants containing psychotropic and hallucinogenic substances are scare in Siberia, the use of fly agaric mushrooms (Amanita muscaria) has become a powerful and commonly used hallucinogen. Many people of northeastern Siberia are famous for consuming these fungi to alter consciousness (Georgi, 1799; Diachkov, 1893; Elistratov, 1978; Yokhelson, 1997; Krasheninnikov, 1949; Maidel, 1894). The discovery of Pegtymel petroglyphs in Chukotka in 1965 shed light on the long-standing habit of consuming fly agaric mushrooms in northern Eurasia. Several populations consumed dried, boiled and raw fly agaric mushrooms (Georgi, 1799; Diachkov, 1893) or mixed them with other foods (Diachkov, 1893; Lindenau, 1983). Again, we can only speculate that the consumption of fungi, together with other shamanic practices, such as ecstatic dancing or the use of a drum, was a likely method of altering the conscious state of a patient and thus reducing pain to the extent necessary to carry out surgery. This would suggest that the practice of trepanation for therapeutic purposes was closely bound with ritualism.
So, they do use the term "likely" in the full text. That is not embelishment by the pop journalists, contrary to my prior assumption based on the abstract. I'm still not sure how reasonable the claim is. Were I for some horrible reason getting a trepanation, I think I would prefer marijuana to sobriety. Mushrooms seem like they would probably make the experience worse; trepanation sounds like a horrible set and setting.
(Score: 2) by turgid on Sunday August 21 2016, @10:26AM
Glastonbury?
I refuse to engage in a battle of wits with an unarmed opponent [wikipedia.org].
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday August 21 2016, @10:37AM
What actual evidence is presented for that "suggestion"?
Since when do you need actual evidence? You believe you live on a spinning ball somewhere in the void, based on what you have been spoon-fed since birth.
You even refuse to preform a simple experiment [soylentnews.org] to put your money where your mouth is.
Get your ass off your office chair. Stop looking at your screen.
Time to wake up, monkey.
(Score: 2) by wonkey_monkey on Sunday August 21 2016, @11:42AM
I've not put any money anywhere. I'm not making an extraordinary claim.
Why don't you tell me about the experiments you've done to prove that the world is flat? Why don't you explain time zones? Why don't you tell me where you think the sun goes at night?
systemd is Roko's Basilisk
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday August 21 2016, @01:23PM
Since you sound like I denied you answers to your questions, allow me to clear the air here:
Why don't you tell me about the experiments you've done to prove that the world is flat?
I have not done any experiments "to prove the world is flat". I have done some experiments that prove that the world's shape is not consistent with that of a convex sphere, 6371 km in radius. One of them is to be able to clearly see an object that is no more than 10 m high, from 20 km away, across a large body of water, from a vantage point no higher than 4 m. The value of 20 km of distance to the object is a lower limit, and the other values are all upper limits, so there is a generous allowance "in favor" of the convex ball scenario. There is no plausible combination of atmospheric distortion, mathematical mumbo-jumbo or amounts of aged single malt whiskey that can account for the missing curvature.
Why don't you explain time zones?
I take it you mean how is it that you can verify that it is f.i. morning in the Americas and afternoon in Europe. This can be explained as follows: if the Earth is flatter than the amount of flatness allowed by the convex sphere model above, then this can be modeled by a Sun that acts more like a spotlight. As said Sun travels that flatter Earth, its emission is more localized and light tends to illuminate only part of the Earth at any given time. To me this is plausible, as I have seen evidence both for the proximity of the Sun, as well as a 'hot spot' of sorts, highly localized, and directly below it.
Why don't you tell me where you think the sun goes at night?
Same concept used for the time zones above: during your local astronomical midnight the Sun has the maximum physical distance from you. I am certain that you will ask "then how come I do not see it ALL the time?", to which I can only answer you by hypothesizing.
But this is not because I am elusive or evasive of your questions: it is because to settle this, physical access is needed to a) the North Pole, b) Antarctica (below 60S) and c) the stratosphere. Problem is, whenever someone tries to go to any one of those places, a thug with a gun will show up and order you to turn around.
Crazy stuff, eh?
(Score: 2) by wonkey_monkey on Sunday August 21 2016, @09:25PM
I have done some experiments that prove that the world's shape is not consistent with that of a convex sphere, 6371 km in radius. One of them is to be able to clearly see an object that is no more than 10 m high, from 20 km away, across a large body of water, from a vantage point no higher than 4 m.
How much of a 10m tall object should one expect, from 20km away, to see with a vantage point 4m above water level? Both with and without taking refraction into account?
I shouldn't be asking you anything you haven't already worked out here...
What was your location when you took the measurements? At what location were you looking? Did you take photographs? Any other documentary evidence?
then this can be modeled by a Sun that acts more like a spotlight. As said Sun travels that flatter Earth, its emission is more localized and light tends to illuminate only part of the Earth at any given time. To me this is plausible,
No, it's utter bollocks, because we can watch it go down below the horizon every night.
Same concept used for the time zones above: during your local astronomical midnight the Sun has the maximum physical distance from you.
Why does the Sun not changes angular size during the day, if its distance is changing?
On a more philosophical note: at what point in history do you believe the powers that be decided not to keep updating the "accepted" science with new discoveries, and instead decided that any further refinements must be hidden from the populace? And why? And how the hell have they been able to keep the secret?
It's a ridiculous notion.
systemd is Roko's Basilisk