Image Details

Israel Antiquities Authority

A scarred skull from Dimona provides evidence of trephination, a surgical technique in which skulls were cut open, apparently to treat chronic headaches by liberating evil forces within the head. About 30 trephinated skulls, dating from the Neolithic period (8000–5000 B.C.E.) through the Arab period (eighth century C.E.), have been discovered in Israel. Many of the skulls healed after the operation, indicating that the patients survived.

The skull surgeons may have been ropheim, a profession referred to in the Bible and often translated physicians or doctors, generally identified as secular healers. But the ropheim, like most healers in the ancient Near East, probably included prayers to a deity (although not necessarily Yahweh) in their healing procedures.