Surgical amputation
Cirugía (amputación quirúrgica con supervivencia)
- Date
- c. 31 ka · confidence high
- Place
- Liang Tebo, East Kalimantan, Borneo, Indonesia
- Credited to
- Homo sapiens
- Field
- Life & health
⚠️ Disputed: the sources disagree.
What it is
The skeleton of a young man whose left foot was cleanly amputated in childhood, and who survived for six to nine years afterwards. The earliest documented surgical intervention.
Published in 2022; it pushes the amputation at Buthiers-Boulancourt (France, c. 5000 BCE) back by 24,000 years.
What it led to
- Anatomical and haemostatic knowledge: surgery as specialised expertise
- Prolonged post-operative care: nursing
- Use of plant-based antiseptics from the rainforest
Built on
- Long-term care of the injuredc. 50 ka
- Medicinal plant usec. 50 ka
- Long-term care of the injured
- Medicinal plant use