ABSTRACT
OBJECTIVE: To investigate the presence of trepanations in an early Modern Age, skeletal collection documented in medical treatises but infrequently reported in osteological collections. MATERIALS: Analyses were conducted on 387 non-adult crania from the ossuary in the church of the Assumption of Valdepeñas (16th - 18th C.), Ciudad Real, Spain. METHODS: All complete or semi-complete crania of non-adults (aged 3-20 years) were macroscopically examined. RESULTS: Trepanation was detected in two adolescents aged 14 and 20 years; no evidence of their survival was observed. CONCLUSIONS: These findings suggest that trepanation was carried out in rural areas as Valdepeñas in the 16th-18th centuries, where the selection of instruments indicates knowledge of contemporaneous medical treatises. SIGNIFICANCE: The present study provides new data on trepanation and how it was performed in adolescents during this period. LIMITATIONS: Understanding the motive for these interventions is highly challenging in the absence of bone lesions, and their occurrence is likely underestimated due to the scant research in skeletal remains from the early Modern Age. SUGGESTIONS FOR FUTURE RESEARCH: Further palaeopathological analyses of osteological collections from this period will provide more information about how this surgical technique was perfected.