Archaeologists found a skeleton with a prosthetic hand that could be nearly 600 years old

• Archaeologists found a skeleton buried with a prosthetic hand in Germany.
• The man is believed to have died between 1450 and 1620.
• The discovery reveals advanced medical capabilities up to 600 years ago.

Archaeologists in Germany unearthed a skeleton with a metal prosthetic hand that could be nearly 600 years old.

The archaeologists used carbon dating to estimate that the man was likely between 30 and 50 years old and died between 1450 and 1620, the Bavarian State Office for Monument Preservation in a statement.

The prosthetic was made from iron and used to replace four missing fingers.

"Even for experienced archaeologists, this was a particularly special find," the Bavarian State Office for Monument Preservation said in a statement, adding that the fingers appeared to have been amputated.

It remains unclear how the man lost his fingers and how the prosthetic was used, it continued.

"The hollow prosthetic on the left hand replaced four fingers," Walter Irlinger, deputy of the general conservator at the department said in the statement.

"The index, middle, ring, and pinky fingers are individually formed out of sheet metal and are immobile. The prosthetic fingers lie slightly curved, parallel to one another. The prosthesis was probably strapped to the stump of the hand."

A gauze-like material was found inside the prosthetic, which was probably used to cushion the stump.

The skeleton was found in a grave near a church in Freising, close to the Bavarian state capital of Munich in southeast Germany.

Around 50 similar prostheses have previously been discovered around central Europe from the late Middle Ages (from around 1300 to 1500) and the early modern period (from around 1500 to 1800), the department said.

The department also noted one particularly advanced example of a prosthetic worn by the German knight Götz von Berlichingen from 1530. It said that after Götz lost his right hand to cannon fire during a battle, he began wearing a "movable" and "technically extraordinarily complex" prosthetic in its place.

Freising has been the scene of numerous military battles over the years, including during the Thirty Years' War of 1618 to 1648, likely leading to increased numbers of amputations and demand for prostheses, the statement continued.

Researchers have previously discovered a prosthetic toe in Egypt thought to be up to 2,600 to 3,400 years old and a prosthetic leg in Italy that dated to around 300 B.C., per the National Library of Medicine.