'Scalpels' reveal ancient medical practices

Can you believe people who lived thousands of years ago were already practicing medicine

Researchers have uncovered 4,000-year-old slate-stone instruments similar to scalpels that are believed to have been used by ancient Peruvian healers to make surgical incisions on patients.

The finding in central Peru reveals that the local Quechua-speaking Yachaq indigenous people practiced medicine, according to Antonio Robles, curator of the Municipal Museum of History in Churubamba, in the northern Andean province of Huanuco.