BRAIN SURGERY was being carried out in Ireland more than 1,000 years ago – and patients survived.
People with disabilities were treated with compassion and respect within their communities in medieval Ireland but TB and other diseases, possibly including cancer, claimed many lives while others died by the sword.
A multitude of insights about life and death in Gaelic Ireland were gleaned following the discovery of an unknown medieval church and the graves of about 1,300 men, women and children who lived along the banks of the river Erne at Ballyhanna, Co Donegal, several hundred years ago.
The burial ground, which spanned several centuries, was found during the construction of the Ballyshannon/ Bundoran bypass in 2003.
Last night, as part of Science Week Ireland, a team of archaeologists and scientists from Sligo Institute of Technology and Queen’s University Belfast, who are involved in the Ballyhanna project, outlined their findings to date.
Dr Jeremy Bird, head of the school of science at Sligo IT, who introduced the lecture The Science of a Cemetery, explained that one of the most exciting aspects of the project is an investigation into whether cystic fibrosis was present in the population 1,000 years ago.
This week human remains from the Ballyhanna site will be delivered to Prof Philip Farrell, an international expert on the disease, who is based at the University of Wisconsin in the United States.
Preliminary studies carried out by Prof Farrell and the Sligo-based team have found that is possible to get ancient DNA from human teeth discovered at Ballyhanna. This could provide evidence of cystic fibrosis in those buried at Ballyhanna.
Michael MacDonagh, a senior archaeologist with the National Roads Authority, said the unexpected discovery of a medieval church and so many ancient remains, dating back to the seventh century, was of major significance.
“It was an incredible discovery because it was completely unexpected. It is possible that because Ballyshannon suffered so disastrously during the Famine, that these burial grounds just fell out of local memory.”
Carbon dating has established that people were burying their dead at Ballyhanna from the 7th-9th centuries AD up to the 16th century but with a gap in between, which Mr MacDonagh said might be related to the Viking invasion.
During last night’s lecture, osteoarchaeologists Caitríona McKenzie and Eileen Murphy said that as well as identifying joint diseases, tuberculosis and possible cases of cancer, they concluded that several individuals met untimely deaths through violence, with their skulls displaying deep sword cuts.
One of the most interesting discoveries was the remains of a young female, who lived about AD 800, whose skull showed evidence of brain surgery. “We know that she survived the operation as the skull shows signs of bone growth after the hole was cut into it,” Mr MacDonagh said.
The team also discovered two cases of a genetic condition known as hereditary multiple exostosis, also known as bumpy bone disease, while in one case the legs of a young male had fused together.
“This man lived into his 30s which was a typical lifespan then. He would have had to be carried everywhere and he was obviously buried formally and with respect, which tells us something about how medieval society treated people with disabilities,” Mr MacDonagh added.
