Cranial Surgery in Ancient Mesoamerica

The word “trepanation ” comes from the Greek trypanon, which means “drill”. In medical literature, trephining is commonly defined as a surgical operation of the skull cap for therapeutic purposes, meaning the intentional aperture of the skull by means of different drilling, attrition and cutting techniques (Table 1). In turn, the anthropological definition of trepanation is an intentional and planned open-ing of the skull, carried out with instruments designed for this purpose (Campillo 1994:41-42; Pahl 1993:20-22). This operation is distinct from cephalic surgery, which is destined to operate on the tissues inside the skull. Not included in this definition are posthumous cranial apertures, like trophy skulls, for example. It can be difficult to detect and confirm trephining from the oste-ological record alone. Traditional trepanation’s consequences vary from the immediate death of the patient to his short or long-term survival, and the signatures it leaves range from orifices of different shapes and sizes to healed traces of the procedure. These marks are what anthropologists study to interpret or infer biocultural patterns and practices. Evidence of cut and perforated skull vaults are known from many parts of Mesoamerica. They are represented as hanging from rulers’hips or foun