This prosthetic leg is 1,500 years old

A lot of people have shared about this on social media, but since we live in an era where new information is hurled at us constantly, things like the 1,500-year-old prosthetic foot are easily forgotten. So here it is, a prosthesis made of wood and an iron ring dating from the sixth century. It was discovered in 2013 in Hemmaberg, Austria, but it was only recently that the findings about the foot have emerged.

"The wood has deteriorated, and all that remains is an iron ring, barely over three inches in diameter, to stabilize the device. There is also a dark staining on the lower leg bones, perhaps left from a leather pouch used to strap the prosthesis to the man’s leg. Besides preservation challenges, there’s another reason that few prosthetic devices survive in the archaeological record: It was tough to survive grisly amputations in pre-antibiotic times."

Read 'Mind-Blowing' Archaeological Find: Wooden Prosthetic for a Medieval Foot at Atlas Obscura.

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