Prehistoric, Ancient and Medieval Medicine
New Perspectives and Challenges for the Twenty-First Century
Edited by Tomáš Alušík Edited by Pavla Alušíková Dostalíková Edited by Milena Melfi Edited by Conan T. Doyle Edited by Rupert Breitwieser
Hardback (Published)
(April 2026)
ISBN: 9781805832591
11.46 x 8.07 inches
Price: $92.00
In stock
This volume presents 21 chapters on prehistoric to medieval medicine across Europe, the Mediterranean, and the Near East. Emphasizing interdisciplinary methods, it surveys research directions and offers studies spanning the Stone Age to the Middle Ages, grouped into three chronological sections.
This volume contains a total of 21 chapters on prehistoric, ancient, and medieval medicine, presented from various perspectives. After a general introduction outlining the directions, possibilities, and methods of research in archaeology and the history of medicine in the period under review and arguing for the necessity of an interdisciplinary approach, there follow 20 chapters presenting specific research topics. These chapters cover a wide chronological span, from the Stone Age to more or less the end of the Middle Ages, and geographical extent, from Western Europe through the Mediterranean (including Egypt and the Levant) to the Near East (including modern Iraq). The papers in this volume are divided into three sections, roughly spanning prehistory, the Classical era and the Middle Ages respectively.
List of Figures and Tables
Foreword
Editors and Contributors
Introduction: Archaeology and History of Medicine of the Prehistoric to Medieval Periods in the Twenty-first Century – Tomáš Alušík
Chapter 01: Shanidar Cave in Iraqi Kurdistan: A Sanctuary for Medical Treatment and Healing for the Injured and Ailing Members of its Neanderthal and Proto-Neolithic H. sapiens Occupants – Anagnostis P. Agelarakis
Chapter 02: Disease and Medicine in the Hittite Kingdom – Robert Arnott (†)
Chapter 03: An Akkadian Ritual Against ‘Mountain Fever’ – Letizia Savino
Chapter 04: The Life after the Pyramid Age: A Secondary Cemetery at Djedkare’s Necropolis at Saqqara (Egypt) – Hana Vymazalová
Chapter 05: The Earliest Documented Healers/Physicians in the Ancient Greek World (c. 3500/3000-500 BC) – Tomáš Alušík
Chapter 06: The Maintenance of Female Sexual and Reproductive Health in the Prehistoric Aegean – Brandelyn Andres
Chapter 07: Dealing with Epidemics in Antiquity - Social Reactions and Emotions – Rupert Breitwieser
Chapter 08: An Archaeology of Temperaments, or from Four Humours to Four Temperaments – Sylva Fischerová
Chapter 09: The Athenian Plague: an Historical Hoax? – Lutz Alexander Graumann
Chapter 10: ‘You Need to Sail to Antikyra’: Healing Classical Madness – Athanasios Sideris
Chapter 11: The Asklepieion of Paros: Restudy of the Old Evidence and New Archival Sources – Tomáš Alušík and Pavla Alušíková Dostalíková
Chapter 12: Cure and Cult at the Asklepieion of Lebena in Crete – Milena Melfi
Chapter 13: Healing Places in the Ancient World: So-Called Healing Sanctuaries Revisited. New Perspectives on Archaeological Sites in Central Italy (4th – 1st Century BC) – Velia Benthin
Chapter 14: Nutrition and Health in Imperial Roman Populations with Implications for Tuberculosis – Jared J. Eddy
Chapter 15: The Rhetoric of Healing: Strategies of Persuasion in Greek Healing Prayers and Exorcisms – Daniel Vaucher
Chapter 16: Pilgrimage to the Healing Cults in the Near East and Egypt During Late Antiquity: Continuity Between Pagan and Christian Antiquity – Vlastimil Drbal
Chapter 17: From Asklepieion to Kosmidion? Temple Sleep: A Dynamic Ritual in Late Antiquity – Mark Beumer
Chapter 18: Temperament and Emotion: Embodied Emotion in Late Antique Medical Thought and Modern Paradigm Shifts in Neuroscience – Conan T. Doyle
Chapter 19: Hospitaller Care of the Order of St John in the Holy Land – Robin Pánek
Chapter 20: The Earliest Written Records of Medieval Hospitals in the Territory of Present-Day Slovakia – Matej Gogola
Assoc. Prof. Tomáš Alušík, Ph.D. is a Classical archaeologist, historian and palaeopathologist, currently an Associate Professor at the First Faculty of Medicine, Charles University, Prague.
Pavla Alušíková Dostalíková, BA, DiS. is a cultural historian-archaeologist and an archaeological illustrator and photographer. She is currently an External Research Affiliate of the First Faculty of Medicine, Charles University, Prague.
Dr Milena Melfi is a Lecturer in Classical Archaeology at the Faculty of Classics of the University of Oxford, and Curator of the Cast Gallery in the Ashmolean Museum.
Conan Turlough Doyle, Ph.D. is an assistant professor of medieval English at the Faculty of Humanities, Charles University, Prague.
Mag. Dr. Rupert Breitwieser works as a senior fellow at Paris Lodron Universität Salzburg, Department of Antiquities.
- Edited by Tomáš Alušík
- Edited by Pavla Alušíková Dostalíková
- Edited by Milena Melfi
- Edited by Conan T. Doyle
- Edited by Rupert Breitwieser
Similar Books
Archaeological Excavations at Irmis Rka: An Investigation of a Multi-Layered Settlement in Southwest Georgia
Results from the 2020 Season: Early Bronze Age to Medieval Occupations
Catuvellaunia and Rome: Economic and Political Relations during the Final Decades Pre-conquest
The Role of Grain from Southeastern Britain and Its Potential for Maintenance of the Roman Military along the Frontier on the Rhine
Colour Concept “Secoli bui” a colori
Codici cromatici e architetture dipinte nell’età tardoantica e medievale
Crossing Disciplines in the Study of Archaeology and Prehistoric Art: Insights from the Sahara and Mediterranean Africa
Proceedings of the XX UISPP World Congress (5–9 September 2023, Timișoara, Romania) Volume / Session 18
Crossing Sacred Landscapes
Contacts and Continuities in the Desert Cults and Beliefs of Ancient Northern Arabia and the Arid Southern Levant
Cuneiform Artefacts from Archaeological Contexts: New Research on Ancient Iraq
Proceedings of a Conference Held at the Bavarian Academy of Sciences and Humanities, July 4–5, 2024
Volume 2
ENTANGLED AFRICA
Intra-African Relations Between Rain Forest and Mediterranean from Around 4,000 BCE to 1,500 CE
Exploring Prehistoric Pottery in Japan
A Study of Organic Inclusions, Adhering Materials, and Impressions of Woven Items
From Coast to Coast
Current Archaeological Research on Cultural Exchange along and across the Baltic Sea
Volume 19
Frontiers of the Roman Empire: The Frontier of the Roman Province of Raetia
Grenzen des Römischen Reiches: Die Grenze der Römischen Provinz Raetien
Gold, Silver and Glass: Power Networks, Cultural Identities, Technology Transfers and Agency across the Old World (7th Century BC – 1st Century AD)
Proceedings of a Conference Held at the British Museum, 16–18 June 2023
Harvesting the Margins of the Viking World
Decentralizing Economies in Late Iron Age Fennoscandia
Volume 6
Images of Anonymous Women
A Semiotic Approach to Image-Text Relations in Interpretation of Ancient Near Eastern Art and the Hebrew Bible
Volume 310
Journal of Urban Archaeology 13 (2026)
Featuring a special section, ‘Lost Towns and Cities: Rediscovering Urban Sites through Archival and Legacy Data’
Making and Meaning in the Bronze and Iron Ages
Chronology, Landscapes and Societies across Europe. Proceedings from the METALAGES2024 Colloquium (Florence, 23 October 2024)
Medieval Yeghegis, Armenia
History, Archaeology, Society. Local Multiplicities and Global Connections of a Rural Centre on the Silk Road(s)
Mobility and Archaeogenetics in Central Asia
People – Goods – Ideas. 3rd International Conference on Central Asian Archaeology in Bern, 11th–13th January 2024
Volume 24
Offa’s Dyke Journal: Volume 7 for 2025
A Journal for Linear Monuments, Frontiers and Borderlands Research
