8 Modern Inventions That Are Actually Super Ancient

1. Heart Transplants And Brain Surgery (No, Really)

Surgery in the bad old days sounds like a frankly odious experience. Anaesthesia consisted largely of getting blackout drunk and/or biting down on a bit of leather and surgeons were applauded not some much for their skill as their speed. One surgeon in the 1800s named Robert Liston, even managed to perform a surgery with a 300% mortality rate, managing to kill his patient, his assistant and a hapless spectator in a single leg amputation surgery.

That said, there is evidence to suggest that ancient folk were performing complex surgeries on some fairly important organs without killing their patients.

Trepanning is an ancient surgical technique that involves boring or scraping a hole in the skull (usually with a sharp piece of flint) in order to relieve pressure on the brain. We know that countless trepanning patients survived the treatment, because we have found their healed skulls.

There is even some evidence for heart surgeries and even transplants dating all the way back to the Han Dynasty in ancient China. Bian Que, the earliest known physician is reported to have performed a two way heart surgery under general anesthesia. Although there's a possibility that this story is apocryphal, The Soviet Academy of Sciences announced in 1969 that it had found archeological evidence of heart surgery in central Asia with the telltale signs of healed wounds and cut bone found on ancient skeletons.

Have we missed any? Lets us know in the comments.

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