trýpanon

Greek trýpanon meant a borer or auger, from trypáō, 'to bore through.' The word was applied to the surgical instrument used to cut circular holes in the skull — a procedure now called trepanation or trepanning. But the practice is far older than the Greek name. Skulls with carefully drilled holes have been found at Neolithic sites dating to 7,000 BCE, and many show signs of bone healing, meaning the patients survived.

The reasons varied. Hippocrates recommended trepanning for head injuries — releasing pressure from a fractured skull. Pre-Columbian surgeons in Peru performed it with obsidian blades, and their survival rates appear to have been remarkably high. Inca skulls from the fifteenth century show healed trepanation wounds in over eighty percent of cases. Medieval European trepanation, by contrast, killed roughly half its patients.

The procedure also had spiritual dimensions. Many cultures believed that boring a hole in the skull released evil spirits or allowed supernatural forces to enter or exit. The circular bone disc removed — called a rondelle — was sometimes worn as an amulet. The line between surgery and ritual was nonexistent; the healer and the shaman used the same drill.

Trepanning never entirely disappeared. Neurosurgeons still perform craniotomies — the modern descendant — using power tools instead of hand drills. In the 1960s, a Dutch librarian named Bart Huges trepanned himself with an electric drill, believing it would expand his consciousness. He survived. The urge to open the skull is apparently one of humanity's oldest and most persistent ideas.