Piece of skull showing a trephination experiment using a shark's tooth, England, 1913

Piece of skull showing holes produced by trephination with hafted shark's tooth, experiment by Dr T. Wilson Parry, England, 1913

A series of holes was made in this section of a skull using a trephine consisting of a shark’s tooth mounted on a wooden handle. This experiment was carried out by Thomas Wilson Parry (1866-1945), an English doctor who was interested in the tools and techniques of Neolithic trephination. Parry collected skulls from around the world and experimented on them using a variety of different tools. It is shown here with a shark's tooth used for trephination (A680638).