Steel scalpel vs obsidian scalpel2/19/2023 TL DR, The internet is a scary place make sure you know that cited information is correct.Īlso - I'm a chemist, not a field expert and this should be taken with a grain of salt and not as god's honest truth. Here is a screen grab of some micrographs. 1993 and see that with proper procedure, the sharpness of the blade doesn't actually matter that much anyhow (s'far as the average Joe is concerned).ĭigging deeper, you check out the Wikipedia article on obsidian and find Ancient Technology in Contemporary Surgery, 1982 and see that it suggests results contrary to the other article. You'll quickly find A comparison of obsidian and surgical steel scalpel wound healing in rats. When you then go searching for this article - I've only given it 10 minutes, to be fair - you have extreme difficulty finding science to back it up. For instance, because of how sharp they can be, obsidian scalpels cause much less trauma to flesh that they slice through, resulting in faster healing. In fact, despite a lack of FDA approval, some surgeons routinely use obsidian scalpels as they have some significant advantages over their steel counterparts. You find that it is posted on the internet several thousand times with this same text. An obsidian blade can hold an edge of just 30 angstroms, making it sharper than any modern scalpel. The surgical tools they used were made from bronze and shaped obsidian.ĭespite the fact that obsidian is a very popular material used for mirrors, decorations, and even bogus energy trapping, the glass’ main use nowadays is still as a cutting tool.This citation seems like a real citation.until you google it. These ancient doctors used brain surgery to treat a variety of diseases like mental illnesses, epilepsy, headaches, organic diseases, neuropathy treatment, osteomylitis, and head injuries. with an inordinate success rate noted among patients, archaeologists say. The Pre-Incan civilization used brain surgery as an extensive practice as early as 2,000 B.C. Map showing the locations of some of the main obsidian sources in Mesoamerica. The latter possibility means that our species is at least 85,000 older than we believe. These spears were made from obsidian by either another species - which had to be extremely crafty and clever - or ancient humans. The remains are so ancient that they actually predate the earliest known fossils of our species by 85,000 years. Remarkably, obsidian tools may even predate humans! Researchers have found what they believe to be the oldest known stone-tipped throwing spears. At 42 days, all wounds were barely detectable, thus precluding scar width analysis. At 21 days, scar width was not different in the two groups. Scar width, however, was significantly less in the obsidian wounds at 7, 10, and 14 days (p < 0.005). Ancients may have transported these goods thousands of miles to trade for other goods and services. Tensile strength of the two wound types was not different at 7, 14, 21, and 42 days. Historians believe obsidian may have been the very first material actively mined and used to manufacture sharp tools at scale. The colors are thought to be caused mainly by trace elements of inclusions. Rarely, obsidian can be blue, red, orange, or yellow. However, it can also be brown, tan, or green. All sorts of prehistoric artifacts made from obsidian have been found by archeologists, including knives, arrowheads, spear points, and scrapers.īlack is the most common color of obsidian. Over time, ancient peoples learned to break obsidian into tools of various shapes. This means the obsidian breaks into pieces with curved surfaces that are razor thin and extremely sharp. The volcanic glass is thought to be so sharp because of the way it breaks, a pattern geologists call a conchoidal fracture. “It is in this manner: First they get out a knife stone (obsidian core) which is black like jet and 20 cm or slightly less in length, and they make it cylindrical and as thick as the calf of the leg, and they place the stone between the feet, and with a stick apply force to the edges of the stone, and at every push they give a little knife springs off with its edges like those of a razor.” Hester et al. Motolinia, a 16th-century Spanish observer, left this account of prismatic blade production: “The prismatic glass blade is infinitely sharper than a honed steel edge, and these blades can be produced in a wide variety of shapes and sizes,” wrote Bruce A. Don Crabtree who re-discovered the production technique in the 1970s. The finest of these prismatic blades were produced in Mesoamerica about 2,500 years ago, according to Dr.
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