Trepanation: History, Discovery, Theory, 2003, 408 p. -

Archaeology constantly throws up surprises and one of these is the indisputable evidence that trepanation (making a hole in the skull, usually for medical purposes) was practised by some of our Neolithic and Bronze Age ancestors. Trepanation has been carried out throughout human history and across cultures, worldwide, and even today it has its advocators. These twenty-five specialised and often technical essays were taken from a conference held in Birmingham in 2000 in which archaeologists, anthropologists, surgeons, pathologists and medical historians approach historical trepanation from every angle. The contributors discuss in meticulous detail the discoverey of cranial trepanation, the distribution of trepanations across prehistoric Europe, evidence for trepanation in ancient Egypt and prehistoric Asia and the Americas, the place of trepanation in post-medieval western medicine and global perspectives.