Evidence of early human amputation appears here

December 3 is the International Day of Persons with Disabilities. When mentioning this group, we have to talk about the great inventions that benefit the disabled, such as prosthetic limbs, wheelchairs, hearing aids, etc.

When did these seemingly very "modern" inventions originate? Perhaps we can analyze this question by taking prosthetic limbs as an example.

Evidence of early human amputation

The emergence of prosthetic limbs needs to start with the important "motivation" for disabled people's demand for prosthetic limbs - amputation.

How can we find the remains of "amputation" of early humans from an archaeological perspective? Prehistoric "handprint rock paintings" may be able to reflect this intuitively.

The earliest handprint rock paintings discovered so far date back to the Middle Paleolithic Age. Depending on the different drawing methods, handprint rock paintings can be in the form of spray painting, photo printing, etc.

Spray painting is a more common form, that is, prehistoric humans pressed their hands on the wall and then "sprayed" paint around their hands. In this way, when they put their hands down, a "handprint" without paint coverage was formed on the stone wall.

The cave near the Pinturas River in Argentina is called the "Hand Cave" because of the discovery of a large number of prehistoric handprint rock paintings. These rock paintings were drawn about 9,000 years ago (Source: wiki)

As you can imagine, if a prehistoric human unfortunately had his fingers amputated due to some external force, and then made a rock painting of his handprints, it would be recorded. So, are there such archaeological discoveries?

In 1906, French naturalist Felix Régnot discovered a group of rock paintings dating back about 27,000 years on the rock walls of the Grottes de Gargas cave near the Pyrenees Mountains, including many handprint rock paintings.

Later, according to statistics by Claude Barriere, professor of prehistory at the University of Toulouse, there were as many as 231 handprints in the cave. What was even more shocking was that among the 154 handprints with identifiable mutilation (the handprints showed whether they were incomplete or complete), as many as 144 were incomplete handprints that showed amputation during life, and only 10 were complete handprints that showed life.

Statistics on the incomplete/complete status of handprints in the Grottes de Gargas cave rock paintings (Source: @归档：Archaeology齑绘)

Part of the handprints/reconstruction showing "incomplete" traces in the Grottes de Gargas cave rock paintings (Source: wiki)

Some scholars hold different views on whether these handprints were formed due to amputation. For example, prehistoric humans may have deformed fingers due to diseases such as rheumatism, arthritis, and Dupuytren's contracture, which could also form such handprints. Please click on the picture to imagine...

Finger deformity caused by Dupuytren's contracture (Source: DiBenedetti, 2011)

However, the remains of finger stumps inserted into soft clay later discovered in the Grottes de Gargas Cave provided strong evidence for the "amputation theory".

Coincidentally, archaeologists have discovered many remains of human amputation in the Stone Age in caves in France, Spain and other places. It can be inferred that the disabled people's desire to live like normal people has appeared very early, so when will prostheses bring them the gospel?

The handprint rock paintings in the Lascaux Cave in the Vézère Valley in France were drawn about 15,000 years ago, and many of the handprints show that they were "amputated" before birth. (Source: ancient-wisdom)

A "broken" handprint dating back about 64,000 years was found in the Mateviso Cave in Cáceres, Spain (Source: turismoextremadura)

The origin of prosthesis and early prostheses

At least 3,000 years ago, humans had come up with the concept of artificial prosthetic limbs. In the Rig Veda, the oldest collection of poetry in India, it was mentioned that when a heroine named Vishpala had one leg cut off like a wild wolf spider in a night battle, the gods gave Vishpala an iron leg so that Vishpala could run again.

The ancient Indian book Rig Veda is the first known document to mention prosthetic limbs (Source: bestglitz)

Interestingly, the earliest remains of prosthetic limbs discovered by archaeologists were found in Egypt, which is far away from India across the Arabian Sea and the Arabian Peninsula.

In 2000, archaeologists discovered a female mummy dating back about 2,600 years in a female tomb at the Sheikh Abd el-Qurna cemetery in ancient Egypt. They found a well-made fake toe made of special materials on the mummy, which was called the "Greville Big Toe."

View of the excavation area of ​​Sheikh Abd el-Qurna cemetery (Source: dailymail)

After comparing the mummy's physical features, archaeologists believe that the woman had her toes amputated and had the "Greville big toe" installed in the missing part.

"Greville's Big Toe" found on an ancient Egyptian mummy (Source: Egyptian Museum)

Can the "Greville Big Toe" really serve as a prosthesis and provide practical help to the disabled? First of all, we must know that prostheses need to meet several "rigidity" conditions:

1. The material used to make the prosthesis must be strong enough to bear the weight of the human body and cannot break or crack;

2. The size of the prosthesis should be appropriate, its appearance should be similar to the real limb, and it should be accepted by the disabled person and the people around him;

3. The prosthesis needs to be cleaned regularly, so it must be easy to load and unload;

4. The most important function of prosthesis is to facilitate the movement and walking of disabled people.

In 2011, Dr. Jesse Finch of the University of Manchester in the UK conducted material analysis and rehabilitation gait experiments on the "Greville Big Toe".

Dr. Jesse Finch conducts experimental tests on the "Greville Big Toe" in the Gait Laboratory of the Human Behavior Research and Rehabilitation Center at the University of Salford, UK (Source: Dailymail)

The "Greville Big Toe" is made of a mixture of linen, glue, plaster and other materials called "cartonnage".

Dr. Jesse recruited two disabled volunteers who had lost their right big toes in accidents and asked them to wear sandals equipped with replicas of the "Greville big toe".

The test results showed that the foot pressure of the two disabled volunteers did not increase significantly. The volunteers themselves also said that the prosthetic toes were very comfortable to wear and walk in, and they were all satisfied with the test.

Dr. Jesse wrote a report on the research, published in The Lancet, and identified the "Greville Big Toe" as the earliest prosthesis discovered in the world.

Of course, there are too many force majeure events. It is impossible that people are the only ones who have lost toes in the course of history. Prosthetic limbs for hands, legs and other parts of the body have also been discovered by archaeologists.

The Capua leg, dating from about 2,300 years ago (300 BC), was found in a tomb in Capua, Italy, in 1910. The original limb, made of bronze, was kept at the Royal College of Surgeons in London but was destroyed in an air raid during World War II. A replica of the limb is kept at the Science Museum in London. (Credit: Science Museum, London)

The iron prosthetic hand of the medieval German knight Goetz von Berlichingen. In 1504, Goetz's mercenary group assisted Duke Albrecht IV of Bavaria in the siege of Landshut, but he was hit by artillery fire in the battle and lost the part below the elbow. Despite the loss of one hand, Goetz's military career was not interrupted. He made two iron prosthetic hands for this purpose, which were enough for him to fix the shield and reins, and even write. Both prosthetic hands are now hidden in the Goetzburg Castle Hotel in Agustausen, Germany (Source: Goetzburg Castle Hotel)

Modernization of prostheses

During the Renaissance in the 16th century, a French surgeon named Ambroise Paré served monarchs such as Henry II and Francis II, and participated in wars as a military doctor. He specialized in general surgery and wrote many pioneering works on gunshot wounds, amputations, fractures, etc.

In addition to improving amputation techniques and survival rates during his time as a combat surgeon, he developed functional prosthetics for various parts of the body, using his understanding of anatomy to design prosthetics that mimic the function of biological limbs.

He was the first person to develop above-the-knee prostheses with adjustable safety straps and hinged knee joints with locking controls - both of which are still in use today and can be said to have laid the foundation for the development of prosthetics in later generations. He is therefore known as the "Father of Modern Prosthetics."

The father of modern prosthetics, French surgeon Ambroise Paré (1510-1590) (Source: wiki)

Ambroise Paré's 1575 above-the-knee prosthetic limb with adjustable harness (top) and 1585 prosthetic hand (bottom) (Source: University of Virginia Claude Moore Health Sciences Library)

The two world wars in the first half of the 20th century gave rise to a huge demand for prosthetics for countless disabled people who lost their limbs in the war. The United States, Japan and other countries successively established prosthetic research institutions and prosthetic factories with a socialized large-scale production model before and after World War II.

Prosthetic limb factory in 1941 (Source: wiki)

At the same time, with the development of industrial technology, prosthetics are also evolving. Alloy prosthetics, plastic prosthetics, and smart prosthetics have sprung up since the new millennium. I believe that in the future, prosthetics will surely bring better benefits to the disabled and help them lead a happy life.

References:

[1] Kalpana S, Suprakash C. Rehabilitation after Amputation: Psychotherapeutic Intervention Module in Indian Scenario[J]. The Scientific World Journal, 2014, (2014-1-12), 2014, 2014:469385.

[2] M Groenen. Les représentations de mains négatives dans les grottes de Gargas et de Tibiran.

[3] Villaseor LDLG. Historical evolution of amputations.2009.

[4] Seymour R. Prosthetics and Orthotics: Lower Limb and Spinal. Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, 2002.

[5] Finch, Jacqueline (February 2011). "The ancient origins of prosthetic medicine". The Lancet. 377 (9765): 548–9.

[6] Bryce, Geore (1887). A Short History of the Canadian People. London: S. Low, Marston, Searle & Rivington.

[7] Sider S. Handbook to life in Renaissance Europe[M]. Oxford University Press, 2007.

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The author of this article is: Archaeology Xueqi, Master of History, Wuhan University, majoring in Shang and Zhou Dynasty archaeology

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Editor/Xiao Xitushuo