[Fred Nerks]

"They had strong bones and good teeth -- much better than ours," said Maria Huaman, 56, as she scrubbed a skull that featured a large hole, possible evidence of a crude form of ancient brain surgery. "I believe that our ancestors led very healthy lives."

Lima Museum.

I see nothing 'crude' about 'ancient brain surgery' the patient obviously survived the operation. What fascinates me is the evidence of several types of skull deformities. Perhaps the deformities were NOT cosmetic as we have been led to believe. We may be looking at a pathology?

[Alkhin]

I seem to recall that a lot of South American cultures liked attaching boards and other flat items to their babies’ heads to purposefully manipulate the shape...seems to me thats where some of the deformations come from...

[maine-iac7]

Whoa!

those are some mighty varied skull shapes. I’d like the see the interpretations from a forensic artist - makes one wonder about just where they DID come from...

[SunkenCiv]

They had no aspirin, but they still got headaches, so, why not a hole in the head? ;’) Trepanation was resorted to in at least a few different (widely separated) premodern cultures; there’s a pretty grim lookin’ simulation of a Roman trepanation in the HBO series “Rome” (season one).