2,500-year-old ‘primitive prosthetic’ found on jaw of mummified Scythian woman who survived complex jaw surgery
About 2,500 years ago in Siberia, a young woman suffered severe head trauma, underwent surgery to reconstruct her jaw and received a primitive prosthesis during the procedure, CT scans of the woman’s mummified remains reveal.
“It is possible that we have discovered evidence of such surgery for the first time,” Dr. Andrey Letyaginradiologist at the Siberian branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, said in a statement translated statementsince “we had never met before [it] in the scientific literature. »
The Pazyryk culture, an Iron Age nomadic group linked to the Scythiansflourished on the Ukok Plateau in the Altai Republic in southern Siberia. The Pazyryk tombs are well known for their exceptional preservation of organic remains in permafrost, notably the “Princess of Ukok“, whose fantastic animal tattoos have been perfectly preserved for more than 2,000 years.
In 1994, archaeologists from the Russian Academy of Sciences excavated a small cemetery consisting of five low mounds on the Ukok Plateau. One mound held the peaceful burial of a woman who was approximately 25 to 30 years old when she died. She was lying on a wooden cot and wearing a wig. But because his burial lacked significant artifacts and only part of his head was mummified, his burial was not thoroughly investigated at the time.
“This part of mummified skin on the skull of the buried woman made anthropological research impossible, but we wanted to learn as much as possible about her,” Natalia Polosmakan archaeologist from the Siberian branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences said in the statement. “The possibility of studying it on a CT scanner It was a happy opportunity that I took advantage of.
CT scans of the woman’s skull revealed that head trauma had destroyed her right temporomandibular joint (TMJ). The injury reportedly prevented the woman from speaking and eating normally. Since the Pazyryks regularly rode horsesthe woman may have been injured when she fell while galloping, according to the release.
Discovery of a “primitive prosthetic” device
Although the woman’s injury was not unusual, the unique treatment for the damage to her bones and ligaments surprised researchers. They found thin channels drilled into the two bones that made up the woman’s right TMJ, as well as horse hair or animal tendons in the channels holding the joint together.
“This primitive prosthesis held the joint surfaces together and allowed the patient to move her jaw,” Letyagin explained. “The joint was working, but she still couldn’t chew food on the injured side, probably because of severe pain.”
Several aspects of the woman’s skull revealed that she had lived for several months, even years, after the operation. New bone tissue had grown around the canals in her right TMJ, and the teeth on the left side of her jaw were worn and chipped, suggesting that she compensated for the injury on the right side by chewing exclusively on her left.
The Pazyryk people knew how to perform basic cranial surgery in the days before anesthesia; proof of trepanation in the form of holes in the skull was found in several mummies. They also had a deep understanding of human anatomy and dissection, according to the release, which was necessary for their tradition of mummifying bodies. But the TMJ surgery performed by this woman is a rare example of their skills.
Although this woman was buried simply, without significant artifacts, the successful surgery on her jaw “indicates that her life was precious,” Polosmak said. “This new study provides important further confirmation that the Pazyryk people were capable of performing complex surgical procedures to save the lives of their compatriots.”
