EARLY EVIDENCE OF CRANIAL SURGICAL INTERVENTION IN ABDERA, GREECE: A NEXUS TO ON HEAD WOUNDS OF THE HIPPOCRATIC CORPUS

Abstract

This paper presents the case study of a cranial surgical intervention involving head trauma at the right occipito-parietal region carried out during the second half of the 7^th century B.C. the Archaic Period, on an adult female individual, a member of a larger group of colonists from Klazomenai, [one of the twelve cities of the Panionian League in Greek Asia Minor], who endeavored to found the city of Abdera (Herodotus: Historia) in Aegean Thrace.

The wound, suspected to have been caused by a sling shot, must have caused a compressed cranial fracture, endangering the dura mater and necessitating a surgical intervention resulting in a 14.78mm by 9.19mm cerebral opening by the method of scraping as opposed to trepanation, for the removal of bone splinters and possibly of the lodged projectile for the obliteration of fissure fractures, and for the subsequent therapy of the wound.

Of great importance to medical science is the opportunity afforded by the treated wound which provides a nexus predating the methodological and procedural approaches of the late 5^th century B.C. recommended in the Hippocratic treatise On Head Wounds (Hippocratic Corpus: II), specifically as it refers to protocols of examining, diagnosing, and surgically treating and caring for head trauma -a rich legacy of medical knowledge and practice of ancient Greek Medicine.