Abstract
Trepanned skulls have been found in burials all around the world and belonging to cultures of any time. We review the most relevant questions of the well-known Neolithic trepanations in Europe (5000 years BC to 2000 years BC) and in American pre-Columbian cultures (until Spanish conquest). We also discuss the trepanations in contemporary primitive cultures, particularly those in north Africa, studied by French doctors at the beginning of the twentieth century, and in eastern central Africa, studied by American and German reporters in the second half of the last century. Finally, we present and discuss two illustrative cases of documented trepanation in contemporary primitive cultures of Africa.
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González-Darder, J.M. (2019). Historical and Geographical Areas of Primitive Trepanations. In: Trepanation, Trephining and Craniotomy . Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-22212-3_6
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-22212-3_6
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