Paul McCartney revealed in a 1986 interview in Musician magazine that John Lennon once asked him and his wife, Linda, "You fancy getting the trepanning done?" He was referring to trepanation surgeries ...

Surgical interventions that require drilling a hole in the skull are now known as “trepanation.” People may have begun using this process earlier than the 19th century when modern neurosurgery began.

Trepanation—the technique of removing bone from the skull by scraping, sawing, drilling or chiseling—has long fascinated those interested in the darker side of medical history. One stock tale is that ...

Although scientists are still unsure how the brain works, one thing's for sure: since the cromagnon days of man, mentally ill people have benefited from a good trepanation. For some reason, a crude ...

In the 1860s, a U.S. newspaper editor, author, and amateur archaeologist named E.G. Squier traveled to Cuzco, Peru. He visited the home of a wealthy woman who collected antiquities to view an ancient ...

Scientists analyzed the skull of a medieval woman who once lived in central Italy and found evidence that she experienced at least two brain surgeries consistent with the practice of trepanation, ...

Brain surgery is by no means a modern invention. Centuries ago, ancient healers and doctors practiced trepanation, or brain surgery that skipped the pain meds and scalpels (which did not exist yet) ...

"This type of tool is known only from a few Celtic sites in southern and central Europe—Romania, Croatia and Austria," said Bartłomiej Kaczyński, hinting a healer was among the settlers.

In a cramped stone grave beneath the medieval town of Imola, Italy, a 1,300-year-old woman lies dead with a hole in her skull and a fetus between her legs. The fetus, now just a collection of tiny ...