Ask someone what they think of when they think of an early prosthetic and they would likely bring up the Captain Hook and Pegleg Pete images from tales of pirates. Actually, 3,000 year old prosthetic devices have been uncovered by archeologists on mummified remains.
This prosthetic toe dates back to between 950 and 710 B.C. Kenneth Garrett/Getty Images
Jump forward nearly 2,000 years, into the Dark Ages. Knights, in an effort to maintain their image of strength, hid missing limbs with iron prosthetics. They weren’t functional beyond hiding the lost limb.
In the early 1500’s, French military doctor Ambroise Paré invented a hinged mechanical hand and prosthetic legs with locking knees and specialized attachment harnesses. A Dutch surgeon, Pieter Verduyn developed a lower leg prosthesis with specialized hinges around the end of the 17th century.