Humans were performing amputations earlier than thought

The eastern side of the island of Borneo—or Kalimantan, as it is known by the locals—is otherworldly. The island, which is bisected by the equator, is blanketed by tropical rainforest. The rock underfoot is limestone, the remains of prehistoric coral reefs heaved up from the ocean floor. Over millions of years, rivulets have carved into the stone, creating networks of caves, treacherous sinkholes, and imposing towers of rock called “karsts”.

The landscape could be straight out of an “Indiana Jones” film, which is appropriate, because the region is a hotspot for archaeologists. In a paper published this week in Nature, a team from Griffith University in Australia have announced perhaps the biggest archaeological find from the island yet. In Liang Tebo, a cave on the Sangkulirang–Mangkalihat Peninsula of eastern Borneo, scientists have excavated the oldest grave ever found in South-East Asia. The 31,000-year-old skeleton they found was missing its left foot and part of the left leg, showing compelling signs of surgical amputation. If correct, that means surgical procedures were being carried out some 24,000 years earlier in the archaeological record than previously thought.