A recent LiveScience report describing a Viking Age mass grave has reignited one of humanity’s oldest and most intriguing questions. Among the remains discovered was an unusually tall man who appeared to have undergone an early form of brain surgery, likely trepanation, a procedure in which part of the skull is removed or scraped away to relieve pressure or treat injury. Carbon dating places the burial around A.D. 772, a period when the average height of men in Europe was roughly 5 feet 6 inches. Yet this individual appears to have stood around 6 feet 5 inches or. . .
