Editing Trepanning (section)

=== Pre-Columbian Mesoamerica ===
{{main|Trepanation in Mesoamerica}}
In the more recent times of [[postclassical]] [[pre-Columbian]] [[Mesoamerica]], evidence for the practice of trepanation and an assortment of other [[Human cranium|cranial]] deformation techniques comes from a variety of sources, including physical cranial remains of burials, allusions in iconographic artworks and reports from the post-colonial period.

Among [[New World]] societies, trepanning is most commonly found in the [[Andes|Andean]] civilizations, such as pre-[[Incan Empire|Incan]] cultures. For example, the Paracas culture [[Paracas culture|Ica]], situated in what is now known as Ica, located south of Lima. Trepanation has also been found in the [[Muisca Confederation]]<ref>{{cite book|title=Sopó, historia, mitos y muiscas |last=Bohórquez |first=Ruth Marlene |lang=es}} Via {{Cite web |title=Cranioplasty in the Muisca Confederation |lang=es |url=http://conociendosopo.blogspot.com/2008/05/el-cacique-sop-se-detiene-en-el_04.html |website=Sopó contado y encantado |type=blog |access-date=2012-01-24}}</ref> (in modern-day Colombia) and the [[Inca|Inca Empire]]. In both, even [[cranioplasty]] existed.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Landmarks in the History of Traumatic Head Injury |pages=2–3 |author=Omar AL Awar |author2=Gytis Sustickas |url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/314004316}}</ref> The prevalence of trepanation among Mesoamerican civilizations is much lower, at least judging from the comparatively few trepanned crania that have been uncovered.<ref name="tiesler2003a">{{Citation |author=Tiesler Blos, Vera|year=2003 |title=Cranial Surgery in Ancient Mesoamerica |publisher=Mesoweb |url=http://www.mesoweb.com/features/tiesler/Cranial.pdf |access-date=2006-05-23}}</ref>

The [[archaeological record]] in Mesoamerica is further complicated by the practice of skull mutilation and modification carried out ''after'' the death of the subject, to fashion "trophy skulls" and the like of captives and enemies. This was a widespread tradition, illustrated in pre-Columbian art that occasionally depicts rulers adorned with or carrying the modified skulls of their defeated enemies, or of the ritualistic display of [[human sacrifice|sacrificial]] victims. Several Mesoamerican cultures used a skull-rack (known by its [[Classical Nahuatl language|Nahuatl]] term, ''[[tzompantli]]''), on which skulls were impaled in rows or columns of wooden stakes. Even so, some evidence of genuine trepanation in Mesoamerica (i.e., where the subject was living) has survived.{{citation needed|date=March 2013}}

The earliest archaeological survey published of trepanned crania was a late 19th-century study of several specimens recovered from the [[Tarahumara]] mountains by the Norwegian [[ethnographer]] [[Carl Sofus Lumholtz|Carl Lumholtz]].<ref name="tiesler2003a" /><ref>{{cite journal |author=Lumholtz, Carl |author-link=Carl Sofus Lumholtz|title=Trephining in Mexico |journal=American Anthropologist |volume=10 |issue=12 |page=389 |year=1897 |doi=10.1525/aa.1897.10.12.02a00010|url=https://zenodo.org/record/1448966 |doi-access=free }}</ref> Later studies documented cases identified from a range of sites in [[Oaxaca]] and central [[Mexico]], such as [[Tilantongo]], Oaxaca and the major [[Zapotec civilization|Zapotec]] site of [[Monte Albán]]. Two specimens from the [[Tlatilco]] civilization's homelands (which flourished around 1400 BCE) indicate the practice has a lengthy tradition.<ref>{{Cite book |author=Romero Molina, Javier |chapter=Dental Mutilation, Trephination, and Cranial Deformation |title=Handbook of Middle American Indians, Vol. 9: Physical Anthropology |editor=T. Dale Stewart (volume ed.) |others=[[Robert Wauchope (archaeologist)|Robert Wauchope]] (series ed.) |publisher=[[University of Texas Press]] |location=Austin |year=1970 |edition=2nd. edition (revised) |isbn=0-292-70014-8 |oclc=277126 |chapter-url-access=registration |chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/handbookofmiddle00wauc |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/handbookofmiddle00wauc }}</ref>

Specimens identified from the [[Maya civilization]] region of southern Mexico, [[Guatemala]] and the [[Yucatán Peninsula]] show no evidence of the drilling or cutting techniques found in central and highland Mexico. Instead, the pre-Columbian Maya apparently used an abrasive technique that ground away at the back of the skull, thinning the bone and sometimes perforating it, similar to the examples from Cholula. Many skulls from the Maya region date from the Postclassic period ({{Circa|950–1400 CE}}), and include specimens found at [[Palenque]] in [[Chiapas]], and recovered from the [[Sacred Cenote]] at the prominent Postclassic site of [[Chichen Itza]] in northern Yucatán.<ref>{{cite thesis|author=Tiesler Blos, Vera|year=1999 |title=Rasgos Bioculturales Entre los Antiguos Mayas: Aspectos Culturales y Sociales |degree=Doctoral thesis in Anthropology |publisher=UNAM |language=es }}</ref>