Archeologists from Australia and Indonesia have unearthed evidence of the earliest known case of amputation—thought to have occurred at least 31,000 years ago—in a cave on the island of Borneo.
The skeletal remains revealed a young adult whose lower left limb had been surgically removed, after which evidence shows the person lived at least six to nine years before being buried inside Liang Tebo cave in East Kalimantan.
These findings predate the previously oldest known surgical amputation by 24,000 years, which was that of a farmer whose arm was amputated in France approximately 7,000 years ago.
Dr India Ella Dilkes-Hall from the University of Western Australia’s (UWA) School of Social Sciences, who co-led the Liang Tebo excavations in 2020, said in a UWA release on Thursday the discovery proves early humans had medical knowledge and skills that were far more advanced than what scientists previously thought….