This volume will look at the history of trepanation, the identification of skulls, the tools used to make the cranial openings, and theories as to why trepanation might have been performed many thousands of years ago.

Discovering Trepanation. Ephraim George Squier's Peruvian Skull and the Discovery of Cranial Trepanation. On the Birth of Trepanation: The Thoughts of Paul Broca and Victor Horsley. The Palaeopathology of Trepanation. The Pathology of Trepanation: Differential Diagnosis, Healing and Dry Bone Appearance in Modern Cases. Trepanation in Europe. Review of Trepanations in British Antiquity Focusing on Funerary Context to Explain their Occurrence. Trepanations and Pseudotrepanations: Evidence of Cranial Surgery from Prehistoric and Early Historic Ireland. Ancient Trepanations and Differential Diagnosis: A Re-evaluation of Skeletal Remains from Denmark. Trepanation in the Portuguese Late Neolithic, Chalcolithic and Early Bronze Age Man. A Neolithic Case of Cranial Trepanation (Eira Pedrinha, Portugal). New Cases of Cranial Trephination. Celtic Trepanations in Austria. A Bregmatic Ossicle Resembling a Trepanation from An 11th Century Skeleton Excavated from a Cemetery Area Now within Prague Castle, the Czech Republic. Prehistoric Trephinations in Russia: Ritual or Surgical? Cranial Surgery: The Epipalaeolithic to Neolithic Populations of Ukraine. Trepanation in Ancient Egypt. Perforating Skull Trauma in Ancient Egypt and Evidence for Early Neurosurgical Therapy. Trepanation in Asia. Four Cases of Trephination from Mongolia, Showing Surgical Variation. Trepanations and Perforated Crania from Iron Age South Siberia: An Exercise in Differential Diagnosis. Trepanation in America. Trepanation in Prehistoric South America: Geographic and Temporal Trends over 2000 Years. Pre-Columbian Skull Trepanation in North America. Trepanation in Western Medicine. Galen and the Uses of Trepanation. Lorenz Heister (1683-1758) and the 'Bachmann Case': Social Setting and Medical Practice of Trepanation in 18th Century Germany. The Evolution of Cranial Saws and Related Instruments. Global Perspectives. Trepanation from the Palaeolithic to the Internet. Contributions from Medical History and the S