NOVA | Inca Skull Surgery

Inca Skull Surgery

• By Melissa Salpietra
• Posted 01.01.10
• NOVA

The Inca were not only skilled engineers and warriors but also successful surgeons. Five hundred years ago, without the benefit of steel scalpels or antibiotics, the Inca performed a type of operation called trepanation—literally carving holes in patients' skulls. How did they do it, and why? In this audio slide show, bioarcheologist Valerie Andrushko of Southern Connecticut State University explains.

Go there, see Video...
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/ancient/inca-skull-surgery.html

I think this is very interesting. But I find the illustrations in the video are very comical!:) Along with most of the moderne opinions of Peoples from the past, are to me. People today, cling to their ideas of modern society being so much more intelligent and knowing so much more than the People who went before us. Completely ignoring that they could do complicated math in their heads, on their fingers, with strings! Math, that most if us, have to use Calculators and Computers, to do today. This is often proved by their great achievements in Architecture. And the Water ways and Fountains and Terraces in Machu Picchu for instance. In this video the speaker assumes (And we all know that to assume, just makes an ass out of u and me;) that they had no access to Anesthesia. And it is well known that plants, leaves and herbs have very Potent Anesthesia built into them and they have been used for as long as we can trace back in time. Then there's animal venom which has been used in many different ways for just as long. "Modern Medicine" has only Reinvented what Nature has already Provided since the Beginning... The situation portrayed in the illustration of the "Skull Surgery", is very comical to me! Showing the Surgeon holding his Patient in his lap, with others holding the patient down!:O Suggesting, an "Old West Cowboy" Style of surgery (getting the bullet out or cutting off the infected leg in the middle of the Prairie). I you just take a quick look at Machu Picchu's. The "Alters"(Big Flat Carved Rocks out in the open, at the highest point, getting all of the light the Sun could provide) you could easily see them as "Operating Tables". And that's just one example, that quickly comes to mind. These people had, and so many other Civilizations around the world had, such knowledge. That we can hardly imagine how much of it may have been lost to all mankind. Perhaps it was "Proprietary" in nature. And the holders of this Knowledge were so afraid that others would acquire and use this "Treasure of Knowledge" for Them Selves. Without Paying for it! Thus, diminishing their Income or maybe even using it against them in War Fair. So afraid, that they never made any kind of records, for "Reasons of National Security"! Nothing for us to see today. Or maybe their Conquers, destroyed all of their records. As was the practice of many Conquering Nations of the past and of Today as well. We may never know! You may find this comical... But I think that the Scifi Stories of today. May just give these Peoples of the Past. Much more Respect and Perhaps even, a more accurate Portrayal of how they accomplished these "Great Tasks". And maybe more In-site into how their Technology could have worked. When we are really just guessing anyway... Anything is really possible! I mean. If there were a Great Natural Disaster here and now. And all of our Technology were Berried by a Great Wave or a Volcano or Perhaps a Great War, where both sides died off. A Plague, Chemical Ware Fare... and only a Remnant Survived. With only the basics of food and water being of any importance for a long, long time... Having to start Civilization all over again... Would People 500 to Thousands of years from now, be able to tell just what all of the gadgets that we left behind did or how to use them???

Still, a very interesting Video:)

Don