Trepanned skulls are attested across independent Neolithic and Mesolithic sites worldwide with no single earliest instance; unlike cataract surgery (Daviel, 1750) or vaccination (Jenner, 1796), the practice predates writing entirely and has no founding event to anchor an origin year.
What would resolve this Confirmed osteological dating of the earliest known trepanned skull, or a specialist paleopathology consensus on the practice's deepest attested horizon.
OpenPaleopathologyWikipedia: Trepanning