Researched~48,000 BC–5000 BC · Prehistory (before 3000 BC)

Healing plants and trepanation

Prehistoric people used medicinal plants and even opened skulls, and some patients survived.

Neanderthals at El Sidrón in Spain, about 48,000 years ago, apparently self-medicated: a 2017 study of dental plaque from an individual with a dental abscess found DNA of poplar (a natural source of salicylic acid, the active ingredient of aspirin) and of a mould that makes an antibiotic. Neolithic surgeons performed trepanation, drilling or scraping holes in the skull, and healed bone shows many patients survived. Healing knowledge was passed on by speech and ritual.

Prerequisites

Stone Tools~3.3 million years ago
Spoken Languageat least ~135,000 years ago?

Unlocks

Ancient clinical medicine~400 BC

Sources

pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
Wikipedia: El Sidrón

Open in the interactive tree →