CT scans reveal how Roman surgeons worked

The tools were discovered 125 years ago at the bottom of the River Walbrook in London. The site turned out to be rich in well-preserved tools and objects from the Roman era.

“The site makes it impossible to determine whether the instruments originally belonged to a group and were owned and used by a single physician,” Fleming wrote in an email. date.

The professor knows that it dates back to the first two centuries AD.

At that time, London (Londinium) was more of a civilian and commercial settlement than a military area, so Fleming suggests that the instruments may have been used in medical care by ordinary people.

Roman surgeons loved bloodshed.

Today the discoveries are held by the Devon and Exeter Medical Heritage Trust (DEMHT), which gave Fleming access to study them.

Six instruments were examined: two surgical probes, two needles, a scalpel and a spoon.

According to the professor, the probes have been used in surgical procedures, for example to examine wounds or fractures. They have also been used for more innocent things, such as removing earwax.

Spoons were used to mix medicines and needles may have been used to suture bandages.