Brain surgery can take place 3,000 years ago

Researching a woman's skull in the Chinese tomb indicates that brain surgery may have been performed 3,500 years ago.

>>>Mysterious skull surgery 2300 years ago

The hole in the skull meeting is about 6cm wide.(Photo: China.org)

The part of the skull with a drill hole belongs to a mummy, a woman, who lived about 3,500 years ago. Archaeologists from Jilin University discovered it in the Xiaohe burial area, belonging to Xinjiang autonomous region, north of China.

According to expert Zhu Hong at the annual archaeological meeting, the hole in the skull is 6cm in diameter. This is evidence of a method to heal tissues near the wound. The team concluded that the procedure for opening the skull through an incision may have been used in China 3,000 years ago.

"The wound shows that the woman, who died at the age of 40, must have lived at least a month or even longer, after the operation," Xinhua said on February 3.

Last November, experts identified the oldest type of adhesive in China from a person who died 3,500 years ago, in the same grave.

Tieu Ha grave site is located about 175km west of the old town of Lau Lan. Swedish expert Folke Bergman discovered the grave for the first time in 1934. This is a burial site of more than 300 graves and famous for ship-shaped coffins.