A VIOLENT attack in a remote North Yorkshire village in the Middle Ages has provided scientists with their earliest evidence of successful "brain surgery" being performed in England.

The groundbreaking discovery comes from a detailed analysis of the skull of a 40-year-old peasant who lived in the deserted village of Wharram Percy, near Malton, some time between 960 and 1100.

The man's skull had suffered a near-fatal blow from a blunt weapon, and sustained a severe depressed fracture on its left side.

Closer examination by experts revealed the man underwent lifesaving surgery, now known as trepanning.

The "surgeon" who carried out the operation lifted a rectangular area of the scalp, and carefully scraped away at the skull to remove bone fragments and relieve pressure on the brain.

The peasant not only survived, but lived on for many years, eventually dying of natural causes.

Simon Mays, skeletal biologist at English Heritage's Centre for Archaeology, said: "The peasant was probably involved in the medieval equivalent of a pub fight, or could have been the victim of a robbery or family feud. Violence at Wharram seemed to involve objects which were at hand, like farming tools. By contrast most skull wounds among skeletons from a York cemetery dating back to the same period were due to sword blows. "This skull is the best evidence we have that such surgery to treat skull fractures was being performed in England at the time.

"It predates medieval written accounts of the procedure by at least 100 years, and is a world away from notions that Anglo-Saxon healers were all about spells and potions.

"It seems most probable that the operation was performed by an itinerant healer of unusual skill, whose medical acumen was handed down through oral tradition."

Wharram Percy was once a thriving community built on sheep farming, but it fell into steep decline after the Black Death in the 14th century and was eventually abandoned.

It was the scene of one of the longest digs in British archaeological history between 1950 and 1990, when nearly 700 skeletons were unearthed.

Updated: 10:01 Wednesday, October 06, 2004