After a very prolonged and painstaking but fruitless search of all the
literary sources of the XVI and XVII centuries, we can be quite certain
that the Spaniards never witnessed any surgical act performed by Indian
healers which had any relationship to skull or brain surgery. [However,
there is evidence pre-Inca.] In the Formative Period, a center of
trepanation appears in the Northern Highlands, harbored by the Recuay
culture, and another surged around the Lake Titicaca area, probably in relation with the Tiwanaku civilization. It is from here
that it spread to the Central Highlands, and centers appear in
Tarmatambo, Tarma, Chulec and down towards the coast, in Yauyos,
Huarochiri, Matucana, Santa Eulalia, Chaclayo, Pachacamac, Cañete, etc.
All these later sites, with more or less defined cultures in different
levels of development, render archaeological remains which were
contemporary with the early Inca culture,
at a time when the creators of the Tawantinsuyu
were organizing themselves around the picturesque valley of Cusco. There, in those early times, many
trephined skulls have been found in Yucay, Ollantaytambo, Pisac, Calca,
Huarocondo and other small subsidiary communities. There are no
authenticated specimens belonging to the late Inca period, and we have
never seen any proof that the Mochicas, the Chimus or the Chancays ever
trepanned. DYE
