The healer who used his hands was known as a chirurgeon, from the Greek kheirourgia, meaning hand (kheir) and work (ergon). Our modern word ‘surgeon’ derives from the same origin. Fighting, hunting, migrating, digging for roots, falling from trees, fleeing predators – the hard life of our ancestors exposed them to endless risk of injury. Tending to wounds is therefore not only the most basic of surgical procedures, but was probably also the first.
